Hello, I'm Sarah Smith and I've got a daughter called Emily who's almost 18 who has Down's
syndrome and also had heart problems when she was younger. When Emily was first born,
there was a big shock around the hospital because I was quite a young mum. Everybody
felt like they'd let us down, or we'd let them down and then she had quite a few health
issues at the time and it was touch-and-go really for the first few days. 18 years ago,
the services were sketchy and patchy around the country. People have a lot more understanding
now about Down's syndrome; although there's still a long way to go. People are now being
clued into television programmes, soaps, different documentaries which makes it
better because people can see what people with learning difficulties can achieve.
I think it all depends on how your child is as to whether they can go to mainstream
school and get on or whether they do need a bit of extra help. The special schools have
got a fantastic reputation academically whereas a mainstream school helps with the, you know,
everyday behavior and peer pressure so it makes it easier I think on families to some degree if the
child is at mainstream but then again you've got to look at the child individually and if they're
struggling then you're not going to, nobody's going to have any benefit from the child being
at mainstream school. On the flip side you know, if they can manage at mainstream and have all that
interaction with the peer group and friendships within the town or village where they live,
then that is really beneficial for later life. I'm Emily Smith and I have a sister
called Grace Smith next to me. The majority of children with Down's do everything that
their siblings do and you know can bring an awful lot of fun into the family house
because they've got such a mischievous sense. I mean the sense of danger is pretty diabolical,
they don't see danger when they're little and a lot like to run off. I know Emily used to run in
any which direction she chose and to say they're slow at learning and slow at everything - they're
very fast at running once they've got the knack. She's always ridden a pony from the age of about
four or five but she competes with everybody else down at the local riding club. Sometimes
I have to help out with Emily when we're trying to get Whisper ready (which is my horse) and
other times I have to get Emily to try and help me but it doesn't always succeed because she's
not very good at helping me. I am sometimes. Sometimes. And I think that's something that
people forget. They blame everything on the Down's syndrome where as an actual fact, they are our
children. They're going to have all our traits and characteristics as well as some of these that are,
you know, quite pertaining to Down's children and so they are going to be like I'm rubbish at art,
rubbish at skiing. There are things that I think Emily will be rubbish at but she's very good at
lots of other things. I want to stay at college and do another course. Then hopefully I might
get a job afterwards. It's really hard because you want Emily to do what Emily wants to do but at the
same time without a bit of guidance, you're worried that you're gonna do too much pushing. I mean
she's at college at the moment. We sort of hope that she'd like to go off to residential college
you know, just to get more independant, but she said she's never leaving home so we'll see, but
at the same time she'd love a flat of her own so that she can either be with her boyfriend or with
a group of friends. She's had a few job offers already. One of those is in Worcester which
would mean her away from home during the week but she's been offered jobs locally as well,
and it's a case of getting that balance right and making sure she's happy and doing whatever
she wants to do and has got the independence that she wants but with the background care so
that it doesn't fail. So Emily's looking at perfectly normal life of growing up,
getting married and living independently, so our job is to help her get there.