This is so touching.
Caterina Scorsone is well known for playing roles on hit TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, but the most important role in her life is as a mother.
The mother-of-three recently wrote a beautiful post about parenting her daughter who has Down Syndrome for Down Syndrome awreness and it’s absolute heart warming.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGp3wLgn8t5/
Scorsone shared her personal essay with personal essay for Good Morning America describing how it’s our differences that make us special;
“Pippa has Down syndrome. But Pippa isn’t Down syndrome. Pippa is Pippa. Pippa is different. So are you and so am I.
“She has a visual learning profile that makes it easier for her to learn from pictures and printed words than from hearing a teacher lecture.
She could read simple words at 3 years old but took longer than her sister to be able to talk because of differences in her oral motor planning and muscle tone. … She is small for her age but her eyes are wise. She always says what she means and doesn’t suffer fools.”
“For Pippa to accomplish what she chooses to accomplish, to thrive and fulfil the desires she has for herself, she needs to be supported in specific ways. So do I.
Equity embraces our differences. Equality sometimes accidentally erases them and in so doing, creates disadvantage and inequality for a great many people.
To have the same opportunities for fulfilment that I have, Pippa needs things like therapies designed to support her learning differences and physical challenges.
She needs more media visibility for people who look like her, so that people recognise her as part of their community, and so she can recognise herself in the aspirational characters she sees on TV and in the press.”
“When she’s older, she’ll need support with some of her life skills (like a lot of us do), and with finding a job that’s the perfect fit for her skills and talents. She’ll need some supports to get an equal shot at life.
She’ll need equity.Regardless of the number of chromosomes or abilities we have, the gender we express, the money in our bank account, the colour of our skin or the learning profile we respond to best, human beings have the same needs.
We need love, safety, dignity and connection.
But human beings are different, we are specific, and we need to be loved and supported individually.”
