Mandy

My Baby Amanda in her first few months of life!

Mandy was brought into the world under a cloud of a mixture
of emotions. Because her sister was severely disabled we were
on the lookout for the signs in Mandy. We were shocked to see
that she had an extra little finger on each hand!!!
The pediatrician told us that in India it meant a sign of
wealth! Who wanted to hear that one! He tied a bit of
string around each one and they fell off just before we brought
her home.

She was also born with a hole in the heart which had to be
monitored closely for the first year of her life. We were also
lucky in that the hole closed over on its own accord!

Mandy had an operation to remove her tonsils when she was
about 4 years old. I was devastated to find that this left her
with a speech impairment the same as mine! Apparently we have
too much air once the tonsils are removed and this results in
a nasal sound which needed years of speech therapy to resolve!

I was devastated to learn that one of her ears was completely
deaf - no sound at all out of it! We closely watched her development.
She was slow in co-ordination which dismayed us.
I took her to gymnastics in the hope this would teach her the fine
motor skills but she didn't enjoy it much.

When she finished elementary school we sent her to a normal high
school. Unfortunately she was teased so much we had to think about
alternative schooling. We found that the special where her sister
attended would accept Mandy as she fitted the criteria.
All the children there had disabilities of some kind whether it
was mental, physical or whatever. She fitted in perfectly and we
had her assessed by the education department.

We found out that although she was 15 years at the time her
intellectual age was that of a 9 year old.
She had to have a lot of input to get her to understand every
day basic living which required so much work. She is going on
work experience next week at 17 1/2 and is fast growing up but
even though her body is that of a 17 1/2 her mind unfortunately
is not. Hopefully she will mature as she gets older so that the
gap in years is not noticeable. We shall wait and see!

Mandy adores animals of all kinds. We have two dogs, Honey a
mongrel and Sissy our long-haired devoted chihauhua and some
goldfish!

Mandy taken recently with Sissy our chihuahua.