"The perfect level of support for our son with Down's Syndrome"

Our son is a wonderful, beautiful, happy 2-year-old boy. He was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome at birth, my wife and I had to adjust very quickly. Part of this process involved attending the Downs Syndrome Scotland 0-5 group. This group provides a space for parents of young children with Downs Syndrome to come together once a month to support each other and to get advice from nhs specialists, including the Occupational Health team.

To be a parent is to worry constantly about giving your child the best opportunity to succeed in life. When your child has Downs Syndrome that worry is increased because you know their path will be different. Our son is a twin so we have experienced a direct comparison for the various developmental stages. The support we have been given at the 0-5 group has been invaluable both in supporting his development and reassuring us as parents that we are on the right track.

Specifically, the team have provided advice on ways to help our son's fine motor skills advance, recommending cutlery and cups as well as strategies to improve his drinking. More recently recommendations from the team have helped us work with his mouth sensitivity to improve his mouth hygiene.

From an early age our son used his legs far more than his arms, and we received invaluable advice to help him engage his arms. This included advice on appropriate chairs to improve his core strength and help him sit, tables to help isolate his arms and suggestions on messy play to help him engage his hands more. These combined actions over a period of months combined with updates and reviews from Occupational Health team brought his development forward.

The contribution the Occupational Health team have made to our son's development is significant. I feel that if we didn’t have regular short meetings his development would be delayed leading to more significant support being required. As a parent I know that I would find it difficult to raise these issues with the GP which would slow his progress, and given the demands on the nhs just now there would also be a delay in when an appointment would become available. Engaging with the Occupational Health team in this setting has provided the perfect level of support, the easily accessible short sessions mean we can have questions ready and know that support will be available while knowing we can follow up on issues at a later date.

I do not think I can adequately express the level of gratitude I have for the help we have received.

Thank you.