Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Seb White

Caroline White was frustrated with a lack of diversity among child models by British retailer Marks & Spencer, so she posted a photo of her son on the M&S Facebook page.

The response on the social-media site was so overwhelming that M&S enlisted the boy, 4-year-old Seb White, to pose for its catalogs.

Now, Seb will star in the M&S 2012 Christmas TV campaign too, with commercials running in Britain over the next six weeks.

White says she hopes the advertisement – directed by the specialist behind the music video for Beyonce’s hit “Single Ladies” – will help get rid of misconceptions surrounding Down syndrome.

“It says he is one of the cool kids too, that he is just like everyone else, and that’s how it should be,” she told The Times of London.

Models with Down syndrome are making inroads in many retailers’ advertisements, such as Saskia Vogt with the Toys R Us Toy Guide for Differently-Abled Kids, and Valentina Guerrero with DC Kids.

To read more about Seb White, check out this story in the Daily Mail.

The Global Down Syndrome Foundation invites you to share your spookiest, scariest, cutest, funniest, strangest or all-around best Halloween photos for our Halloween Costume Photo Contest!

Over the next week, we encourage families to submit photos of their child with Down syndrome in his/her costume, and the photo with the most “likes” on our Facebook page before midnight on Monday, November 12, will be the winner! The winning photo will be featured in our new newsletter, and $250 will be donated to the local Down syndrome organization of the winner’s choosing!

To submit a photo, email mbryant@globaldownsyndrome.org, or send a photo to us via Facebook or Twitter.

Check back to our Facebook page often as new photos are posted, and vote for your favorites.

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

From ESPN: There was a time when Heath White chased perfection. E:60’s Tom Rinaldi tells the story of a how the birth of a girl with Down syndrome led to the re-birth of a man who thought he had everything, until he discovered the joy of pushing Paisley.

Only one day until the Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show, with entertainment by singer/songwriter Natasha Bedingfield! Here’s another preview, with her music video for “Pocketful of Sunshine”:

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and it’s also National Physical Therapy Month. So we’re highlighting Pat Winders, the senior physical therapist at the Anna and John J. Sie Center for Down Syndrome at Children’s Hospital Colorado. The Sie Center is the medical care arm of the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, and Pat is an important member of the therapeutic team.

Pat came to the Sie Center in order to help create a comprehensive care facility for children with Down syndrome. Beside her daily work of seeing patients, she has instituted programs that are flourishing in our community. Among her initiatives are the Be Beautiful Be Yourself Dance Class with the Colorado Ballet, the Ed McCaffrey Dare to Play Football Camp and Denver Broncos Cheerleaders Dare to Cheer Camp.

See more about Pat, and her book, “Gross Motor Skills in Children with Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals,” on our website.

British singer/songwriter Natasha Bedingfield is the entertainer for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show on Saturday in Denver. Here’s her hit song “Unwritten” as a preview of what the 1,200 attendees of the fashion show will hear.

When the unemployment figures for September were released last week, there was a lot of politicking surrounding the rate, which fell to 7.8 percent nationally, the first time it’s been under 8 percent since January 2009.

Inside the numbers, however, was another rate that didn’t get as much attention. Since 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has compiled unemployment figures for the differently-abled. And although the information hasn’t been around long enough to seasonally adjust and evaluate month-to-month, there are some encouraging signs in the most recent report.

The unemployment rate for the differently-abled was 13.5 percent for September, down from 13.9 percent in August, and perhaps more tellingly, down from 16.1 percent in September 2011.

Unlike with the overall unemployment figures, which reflect a decrease in the size of the civilian labor force in recent months, the numbers for the differently-abled show an increase in the labor force month-over-month and year-over-year. The 5.2 million differently-abled people who were employed in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the largest number since July 2009. The 6.1 million differently-abled people in the labor force is also the highest number since July 2009.

Here’s a look at the unemployment rate for the differently-abled (not seasonally adjusted) since 2008:

Thank you to all employers who look to the differently-abled population as a capable and hardworking employee base, and we hope to see the numbers continue on their current path.

For more information about employment information regarding the differently-abled, check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

A Washington state man told NBC News that the thought of his wife and 5-year-old son with Down syndrome is what helped him make it through two years in a Nicaraguan prison until his drug sentence was withdrawn on appeal.

“Just thinking of my son, he kept my hopes alive, kept my sprits alive,” 35-year-old Jason Puracal told NBC’s “Today” show. Puracal’s family flew to New York to meet him Sunday night after he arrived in the U.S., NBC said.

Puracal was accused along with 10 other suspects of using money from suspected drug trafficker Manuel Ponce Espinoza to by farms in Nicaragua, but Ponce testified he didn’t know Puracal, and Puracal maintained he didn’t know any of the other defendants. He said his home sales were legitimate purchases by Americans, Canadians and Europeans looking to establish on the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican coasts.

See the video from Puracal’s interview with NBC below, and for the full story from NBC News, click here.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Last night on “Glee,” character Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch) cooed over her new baby, Robin, who happens to have Down syndrome.  The introduction of Robin (Jordyn Orr) to the hit Fox TV show marks the third character on the show with Down syndrome.

The show has also featured Becky Jackson (played by Lauren Potter) and Jean Sylvester (played by Robin Trocki). Trocki had to be written off “Glee” because she has Alzheimer’s disease, which is common in people with Down syndrome.

“Glee” isn’t alone in casting actors with Down syndrome. Also this year, the shows “Shameless,” “American Horror Story,” “Blue Bloods,” “Legit” and “The New Normal” all feature actors with Down syndrome.

The inclusion of differently-abled actors on major TV shows is a great way to increase awareness, diminish stereotypes and encourage conversations about the rights, abilities and potential of people with Down syndrome, and we applaud the shows’ examples.

For the full story from ABC News on this fall’s TV lineup and all the actors with Down syndrome, click here.

Down syndrome and Alzheimer's panelists at the Chicago workshop

The Global Down Syndrome Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association hosted the first-ever workshop to bring together key scientists from the fields of Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s research this week in Chicago.

With the overwhelming evidence of a strong connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s, and acceptance of the idea that studying people with Down syndrome is key to discovering a cure for Alzheimer’s, the workshop aimed to plot the direction of research in this emerging field.

Down syndrome occurs when a person has three copies of the 21st chromosome instead of the normal two. Studies show that one the main genes responsible for Alzheimer’s disease is on the 21st chromosome and is therefore more active in individuals with Down syndrome. Virtually 100 percent of people with Down syndrome will develop the pathology in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, even if it’s not always accompanied by the same memory loss.

By fostering a closer community of research, those studying Alzheimer’s will gain the most profoundly fitting population to help find a cure, and those studying Down syndrome may obtain access to funding that didn’t exist before. Down syndrome is the least-funded genetic condition by the National Institutes of Health, despite being the most frequently occurring chromosomal disorder, affecting 1 in every 691 live births in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We’ll have more details about the results of the workshop soon.