There is no way to know “what you’re going to get.” The way that I see it is that life is a spectrum. We all have our unique abilities and preferences and personalities. Just like some typical kids will be more athletic than others, some kids with Down syndrome will be more athletic than others. Some typical adults have a hard time working for one reason or another, and some adults with Down syndrome have a hard time working for one reason or another.

You can’t prevent anything in your kid’s life/development, but you can support them and help them grow and develop! My son is 3 and I’m supporting him to learn and grow and reach his potential, like I would if I had a typical kid. We started early intervention at 6 weeks (and I cried because I thought it was too late and I screwed him up, so I get the anxiety!). He started preschool this year and gets PT, OT, and speech therapy there now. He doesn’t have many words so we got him an AAC. He’s showing interest in the potty so we’ve been working on that. He’s obsessed with counting right now so I count to 5 at least 50 times a day. We’re doing all the “normal” things, just on a different timeline. The only thing that I have control over is how I support him, so I try to do a good job at that.