Down Syndrome

Alessio was born in Italy and his father immediately learned that his son had the characteristics of Down syndrome. When Alessio was three months old, the diagnosis of Down syndrome was confirmed by chromosomal studies. He was small in size and had difficulty feeding and gaining weight.

In the first years, Alessio grew and developed but very slowly. He crawled when he was almost a year old, and he walked just before he was two years old. His language and manual skills were far below those of his peers.

These are the stories of five children who started life as "Down syndrome" babies but who defied this diagnosis.

Some of these children stayed with the Intensive Treatment Program until they were able to perform as well as their peers and so achieved full graduation from the program. This is the goal for every child.

Others stopped short of full graduation but their parents continued to provide ongoing challenges and, in some cases, substantial amounts of neurological program.

Here are their stories.

The parents of Down syndrome children on The Institutes Program give their single best piece of advice to parents of a newborn diagnosed with Down syndrome.

"We would explain exactly what the program demands - both from the child and the parents - and recommend parents begin the program and stay with it for as long as required."

"Begin the program at the child's birth because it's the only program that can solve your child's problem."