Real Talk with Hadassah Chen:
Jodi and Caila, a mother and her teenage daughter, joined Israel National News in studio to discuss life with Down Syndrome, and the changes they hope could make society more accepting of and inclusive for children with special needs.
Caila is 14 years old and she is Down Syndrome she is also a model and a girl like all others with dreams and hopes. Her mother Jodi shared with us her dream of making our society to be more accepting and inclusive for children with special needs.
Jodi dreams of a tomorrow where having a child with brown hair or down syndrome will receive the same reaction from us all. Her point is that we all want our children to reach for the stars and these expectations shouldn’t change when we have a child who is born with special needs or disabilities.
In her words: “This was something I had to grapple with as my world came crashing down around me in February 2008. A pediatrician strode into my hospital room and asked me the five words that changed my life, “Did you do genetic testing?” With his question, he revealed his suspicion and later testing confirmed the somber truth: Caila, our third child, was born with Down syndrome”.
“Once home we decided: Our expectations for Caila would be just as high as they were for our other two children, but according to her ability. We made a point of treating Caila exactly the same by giving her responsibilities that she can handle and pushing her to be the best person that she can be and to reach her potential”.
VIDEO:
I had the same experience in CH. Please have the administrators and principles of CH schools, listen to this interview.
Inclusion needs to start in Lubavitch, that is what we are meant to be.
In Israel in beit shemesh in Chabad school they have a down syndrome Chabad girl they always have a least one in the school plus they have also smaller classes with different kids on the spectrum and sone that are dyslexic and need extra help Israel it’s very common to have this
This was so moving and powerful and definitely raised my awareness and sensitivity to be more inclusive