THE LILLI SERIES 2/5: Ashley, Mom

If I could sum up Lilli in one sentence it would be “Lilli’s going to do what Lilli wants to do when Lilli wants to do it.” She’s headstrong and stubborn, determined but contemplative, self-aware and independent, a jokester with a huge heart, and has hilariously calculated one-liners. It is typical of her to hang back and observe for a while before participating. This usually leads people to believe she’s not understanding or interested. 

Probably my favorite story is when Lilli was in kindergarten, she barely spoke at school. When she did, it was a whisper. She knew she couldn’t speak as well as her peers and was quietly honing her craft. Every week her class would work on a new word family, i.e. -at word family: hat, bat, cat, etc. At the introduction of a new word family, the students would contribute all the words they could think of. Lilli never participated, not once. Toward the end of the year, they got to the -it word family. The teacher called on Lilli and asked if she knew an -it word. At an audible volume and perfectly clear, Lilli said “SHIT.” In kindergarten. To her entire class. 

That afternoon when I arrived to pick her up, her general ed teacher, SpEd teacher, and speech therapist all came running to the car. “I’m so proud of Lilli!” “Lilli spoke loudly in class today!” “She contributed to the word families and it was all on her own!!” They were so proud of her and I was mortified. They thought it was great and showed she had been listening all year, and what great cognitive function! I see these ladies regularly and we still laugh about it. 

Moral of the story: don’t underestimate this kid. She’s always absorbing. She doesn’t want you to know she knows things until the perfect opportunity, then she’ll surprise you. All on her own time.

#TheLuckyFew #TheLuckyFewFoundation #DownSyndrome #ThisIsDownSyndrome