THẢO'S PERFORMANCE 

 

This is a record of  Phan Lam Ngoc Thao, 29 years old, a person with Down Syndrome.

The video shows Ngoc Thao, 29 years old, who has Down Syndrome, playing keyboard on the occasion of Disability Day, organised by the Fairfield Council in Sydney , NSW, Australia , 26 Nov 2008. Not only Ngoc Thao played seven pieces of popular songs on keyboard, she also made a short speech in English and Vietnamese. The fact that Ngoc Thao is bilingual proves that disabled people or at least people with Down Syndrome have potentials which can be developed to abilities like anyone else, and people with Down syndrome can be bilingual. On Parents - Teachers nights, Ngoc Thao interprets for her parents what teachers have to say about her at school. She switches from one language to another at ease, this happens because her mother defied both the nurses and teachers' suggestions about how to teach her to speak.

When Ngoc Thao was brought home after she was born, the social workes suggested to her mother to speak only English to the baby, seeing she was intellectually disabled. The perception was that Ngoc Thao might have difficulty with language, and having to process two languages would be too hard for her, and might have adverse affects on her development. However, Ngoc Thao's mother believed that as Ngoc Thao had a great grandmother and grand parents, she needed to know Vietnamese in order to communicate with them. As a result, she taught Ngoc Thao both English and Vietnamese.

When Ngoc Thao went to kindergarten, her teachers also expressed the same ideas, by this time Ngoc Thao was five years old but could speak only a few words. However, Ngoc Thao's mother had deep conviction of Thao’s abilities and keep teaching both languages to the child. Ngoc Thao spoke complete simple sentences when she was eight years old, and after years of patient teaching from her parents, she grows up bilingual and feels comfortable with both English and Vietnamese.

The DVD shows that not only people with Down Syndrome can talk well, they can also be taught to be bilingual as Thao is. In addition, they have abilities like everyone else which parents and schools  can help develop, in Thao's case they're music, song writing and playing the piano. Ngoc Thao is a good example, a role model and a proof of parents' intuition, listening to what the experts have to say, but at the end, doing what they feel right for their children.

We hope the DVD will be an inspiration for parents and help them to have faith in their child's abilities. Enjoy.


This DVD is produced by the Vietnamese Parents with Disabled Children  Support Group  in NSW, Australia . For more information about us, please visit our website: chamevoiconkhuyettat.org.au. 

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