I think that by and large they pretty much accept him and a lot of the time don't pay him any more attention than they would do to any other younger brother. They may be aware that his development is slower and there are certain things he can't do but some of the things they are not aware of simply because they see him as a younger brother and sometimes younger brothers can't do as much as older brothers or sisters.

Very ordinary every day things like he will take ages to eat his breakfast some days and on a school day obviously you think 'come on and get on with it'. He is not physically skilled / able to get himself dressed and sometimes he just doesn't cooperate and doesn't help and will actively do the opposite of what you are trying to do.

He sleeps well which isn't necessarily the case for a lot of children with Down's Syndrome, so I think we are quite lucky there. He is a good eater in the sense that although he might be slow to start his breakfast he does eat a good variety of foods. He is not particularly picky. Sometimes communication can be a barrier for him and for us. There are times when we just don't know what he wants and he can get quite upset and you go on and on trying to get the message across and maybe end up with him being distressed and crying and we don't quite know what he wants - so that's a difficulty

I think it was when he started approaching nursery age - that was our first battle in terms of really acknowledging his needs and getting the amount of support to be at nursery that he would really need and I think that we had quite a struggle with that. The number of hours support that they were offering was purely based on what they could afford and not on his needs and that was why we were keen to have him statemented early on so that we could say 'well that's what he needs', which was more or less full time support at that stage in nursery.

That took a lot of stress, a lot of letters, a lot of meetings, a lot of looking into the issue, getting a lot of support from the Down's Syndrome Association, or Downs Ed. People there were very good - and other things like IPSIA - and they were very supportive in saying 'well actually no they're wrong to just try and brush you off and hope you go away'. We didn't go away and they did relent and give the 10 hours support that he needed

It was more or less as soon as he was born. Sally in fact I think it was that spotted. She just felt that there was something in his look and then she looked at his palm - and the single crease across his palm she queried and thought from there that he had Downs Syndrome and asked me and I thought well, yes, possibly, so that must have been within the first hour of him being born

Interviewer: What was your reaction?

I think just curious, really, to find out. I think for both of us, because my professional work is with adults with learning disabilities and Sally as a physio has always worked with children with physical disabilities mainly, but also with learning disabilities. So I don't think it was the bolt out of the blue that maybe other people experience. It was a surprise, but not a dreadful shock. I think we were just quite accepting of that fact really from the word go