'Down syndrome doesn’t define them': Twin girls ready for their first day of school

Twins Quinn and Éire Brady will start primary school next month and their mum tells Sharon Ní Chonchúir that the support of Down Syndrome Ireland makes a huge difference in their lives and has prepared her girls for their next stage in life

Thu, 12 Aug, 2021 - 21:05

Sharon Ní Chonchúir

Six-year-old identical twins Éire and Quinn Brady from Kiltipper in Dublin are excited about starting primary school in a few weeks. They don’t realise it, but they have a team cheering them on. Not just their family but the entire organisation of Down Syndrome Ireland (DSI).

DSI is one of four charities being supported by Woodie’s Heroes, an annual fundraising campaign run by DIY and home improvement store Woodie’s. The others are Barnardos, Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland, and ISPCC Childline.

This is the seventh year of the campaign, which has raised almost €2 million to date. The hope is that with Éire and Quinn as its ambassadors this year, they will have their best year of fundraising yet.

The twins’ mother, Maria Brady (45), definitely wants this to be the case, as she and her family rely on the help they receive from DSI.

“They are always there as backup for us and the girls,” she says. “Especially now that they are starting school.”

Brady and her husband Keith have two other children, Bradley, aged eleven, and Jake, aged three. She admits that she worries about the twins more than she does about the others.

“I’d be worried if it were any of my children starting school,” she says. “But there’s more anxiety with the girls. My three-year-old can come home from preschool and tells me what happened to him during the day. But my girls struggle to do that.”

Communication is the girls’ main challenge at this point in their lives. It’s also the main way in which DSI is helping the Brady family.

DSI is currently preparing the staff at Éire and Quinn’s primary school in the same way they prepared staff at their preschool.

The charity has been doing this ever since the girls started preschool. As part of its Early Years Education Programme, a member of the DSI team trained the teachers and staff at the preschool in how to use the DSI’s See and Sign communication system.

They showed the twins’ family how to use it too. “It’s basically a set of flashcards that help the girls to communicate more effectively with us,” says Brady. “We use them in combination with Lámh, which is a form of sign language.”

This approach has improved the girls’ speech and language skills dramatically. “Their attention span is better now,” says Brady. “They interact more and are repeating far more words.”

DSI is currently preparing the staff at Éire and Quinn’s primary school in the same way they prepared staff at their preschool. They are teaching them how to communicate with the girls and how to make the school environment more inclusive for them.

And it’s not just Éire and Quinn that they are doing this for. They are doing it for more than 400 children nationwide.

“It’s so reassuring having them there to help us through this transition,” says Brady. “They were such a support when the twins started preschool and it’s great to know that we’re not alone and we can just pick up the phone if ever we need them to help with any problems they might have in the transition to primary school.”

This may not be the only reason the Brady family requires the support of DSI in the coming year. Because the twins’ early intervention services stop once they start primary school, they may need to avail of these services from DSI.

Maria Brady believes that her daughters have the potential to live happy lives but that all depends on them having access to vital services during their early years.

“As soon as we left the hospital after the girls were born, we were linked in with our early intervention services team for speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy, all of which the girls needed and still need,” says Brady.

“But these services stop in a few weeks and the girls will have to go on HSE waiting lists, some of which are up to three years long. I hope it won’t take us that long to access speech and language services for the girls but at least we know that there are some services available at DSI. They’re limited, but they are something.”

DSI employs a small team of specialists in the areas of health, speech and language, early development, education, employment, and adult advocacy services in order to support people with Down Syndrome and their families.

“They are there for people from birth throughout their lives,” says Brady. “But it all depends on funding.”

Brady believes that her daughters have the potential to live happy lives but that all depends on them having access to vital services during their early years.

“We were so shocked and upset and full of fear for the future when they were diagnosed as babies, but I’ll always remember a piece of advice we got from a doctor,” she says.

Down syndrome is only part of them. It doesn’t define them. I have high hopes for them as long as they can get the help they need.

For now though, her focus is on getting the twins started and settled at primary school. “I just want to get them in the door of Junior Infants,” says Brady. “I can’t see beyond that at this point.”