Delivering a baby with a developmental disability is a life-changing experience. But for Ann Marie Berardi of Collegeville, Pa., it was a positive one for her and her family, because The Arc was there.
I talked to her recently about her experience with The Arc. You can hear my interview below. I learned how the organization has helped her raise her three-year-old son, Nicholas, who has Down syndrome. Ann Marie didn’t know Nicholas had the condition until he was born. So it was quite a surprise.
“I just doubted myself as a mother,” Ann Marie says. “How could I mother him? … I guess that’s, for a lot of the moms, their thoughts. You know, now that I look back on it, it was a very silly thing. I love being a mom to him. And it was through The Arc and through the therapists that have taught me many things in life with him.”
Ann Marie has no history of developmental disabilities in her family. She explains that she believes Nicholas has the condition because she and her husband had him later in life.
Ann Marie talks about the grieving period she went through after finding out Nicholas has Down syndrome. She was lost and confused. But then the wife of her husband’s business partner suggested they connect with The Arc. Ann Marie looked into it, and decided to reach out.
At two weeks old, Nicholas joined The Arc’s Early Intervention program. Arc physical therapists began working with Nicholas in the family’s home every week. He was alert and responsive, and bonded with the therapists right away. Although they were strangers, Ann Marie says Nicholas knew in his heart the therapists were there to help him.
At two years old, Nicholas was very delayed in his growth motor skills. Arc occupational and physical therapists came twice a week to work with Nicholas, and a special ed. teacher and speech therapist came once a week.
It all paid off. On Oct. 18 of this year, Nicholas graduated from The Arc’s Early Intervention program, right on schedule. Ann Marie recalls that day, and remembers it being bittersweet. She was saddened, because she was closing a chapter in her and her son’s life; but hopeful, because a new one would soon be opening.
Nicholas now goes to school five days a week, during morning sessions. He attends the Blue Bell Elementary IU three days a week, and a public preschool two days a week.
The Arc provides the IU classroom. It’s language-based, and Nicholas recieves education, as well as speech, occupational, and physical therapy. He’s there with seven other developmentally disabled children, some of which also have Down syndrome.
Nicholas is doing very well in both schools. His speech and fine motor skills are improving, and his classmates love him. “It’s all due to the Arc,” says Ann Marie.
Through it all, the biggest thing she learned is that it’s easier to accept and understand Nicholas’s diagnosis and help him through his delays. “They helped me reach out, go out into the community,” she says. “And be proud that here’s my son Nicholas, he is Down syndrome, and it’s ok.”
Ann Marie can’t imagine where she’d be today without The Arc. “They mean everything to me,” she says.
Get a closer look inside her story by listening my interview below.
