Shedding Light on Down Syndrome

from Wake Forest University:
Research and internship support aspiring genetic counselor
Newswise — Shortly after birth, Charlie Saffian was diagnosed with Down syndrome.
His sister Eleanor was nine at the time. At first, she didn’t know what to expect of her new baby brother.
“I remember looking around my school cafeteria and thinking there are a lot of people here with special needs, and I know nothing about them,” she said. “I didn’t know what my baby brother was going to be like.”
Day after day, Saffian said she came to realize her brother’s condition, a genetic disorder where an extra chromosome is passed to a child from one of its parents, did not make him any less of a person.
“Charlie does chores like the rest of us and cheers on the Bruins like the rest of us. He beats me at Xbox every day,” she said. “Charlie will take longer to learn how to do multiplication and read, but he is going to be able to do all that on his own time.”
Eleanor Saffian, now a rising senior at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C, said her lifelong relationship with Charlie inspired her to pursue a career as a genetic counselor – a job that will allow her to shed light on misperceptions about Down syndrome and help new parents with a Charlie of their own.