8 Major Misconceptions About Down’s Syndrome - From A Parent Who Had Them

A tricky one this, with 'mainstream' carrying an awful lot of positive and negative connotations depending the platform upon which it sits.

The very site you're reading this article on carries excellent content on a variety of hobbies and interests, many of them niche, counter-culture or skewed from mainstream attention. Anybody that indulges in anything of this nature gleefully spurns whatever 'mainstream' even represents, allowing them to claim greater ownership of the thing they love most.

However, similar to a parent's wish for their child to not actually be that 'special' at all, the deep-rooted hope for mainstream acceptance of Down's Syndrome becomes simultaneously rewarding and terrifying.

Fortunately, this is an area where inspiration, confidence and joy routinely trumps prejudice, narrow-mindedness and fear. More and more, children with all manner of disabilities are attending mainstream schools at the longstanding encouragement of paediatricians, occupational therapists, key workers and focussed specialists that will regularly keep up with a child's progress.

Chasing funding can be an arduous task, but it does exist, and will aid local schools in providing additional partial support depending on specific needs. Nurseries, daycare centres and even private babysitters are model professionals and deeply passionate carers, adjusting their own methods to cater to all children, with those that don't quickly falling behind their peers. A compassionate universe suddenly forms around your child, yielding a rewarding feeling from seeing so many people make such an effort to meet your own levels of love, affection and hope.