It is Never "Game Over"

​People with Down syndrome often (and by often, I mean almost always) experience challenges with their fine motor development at some time in their life.  For some this is more fleeting, and for others it is more of a long-term deal.  Sevi has the long- term kind, and it affects everything he does, especially Sevi holding and effectively using something to write, draw, color, paint, pretty much anything that makes a mark on a page. 
 
Because of this, Sevi has pretty much always avoided drawing because it is hard and his drawings don’t generally come out the way he wants them to.  This is something he is acutely aware of, and something he wishes was different.  12-years of not being able to do something the way you want can have lasting effects on your belief that things could ever change. 
 
But change it can, because, for some reason, and we may never know why, after a few sessions with his current Occupational Therapist, Sevi has begun to draw. 
 
Mostly he is copying images his brothers draw but he also copied an elk from a coaster in the house, and then the cover of a Harry Potter Book, and was so proud of his end products.  
 
He has colored in the past but drawing has never been an activity of choice to fill free time.  Yet, after 12- years, he is building confidence, and the practice can only help him build skill.  
 
His drawings are still far from what he wants them to look like, though he doesn’t seem deterred, and they may not look like much to someone else, but for me they are a prime example that it is never “game over” where learning is concerned.  
 
Watching him, get enjoyment from something that has previously caused so much struggle, shows that the window can always open, no matter for how long it had been closed- sometimes it is just going to take a little bit of elbow grease and even more belief that it will.