-
(John Whittington) They'll do things
that are just them.
-
(brother) They can be annoying
but they can be really fun.
-
You don't need to turn it like that.
-
They're thinking.
-
Imagine if we could have behaved
like that.
-
(narrator) She's a mom in 18 million,
-
that the odds of having
non-identical twins
-
with Down Syndrome.
-
It's the morning rush hours.
Alison Whittington's been up since six.
-
Okay dear, are you ready?
-
(narrator) Seven year old's Thomas
and Matthew, are busy boys.
-
(Alison) Some mornings
it goes really well,
-
some mornings it can be hard to get up
at all even by nine o'clock.
-
- Are you ready for school?
- Yes.
-
Oh good. Okay, I'll right you
that note that you need.
-
A couple of mornings I work,
so I'm trying to be at the door
-
even more quickly those mornings,
but it is quite hectic
-
and I'm just going to keep going
and there's no time
-
for sort of anything to go wrong,
but it is pretty busy
-
just getting the four kids
out the door.
-
(narrator) Thomas was just 12 days old
when he contracted meningitis in hospital.
-
He survived but it's had a lingering impact.
-
No mum!
-
(Alison) Come on boys!
-
(Alison) The meningitis
has caused swelling in his brain
-
and so it obviously put pressure
on the rest of his brain,
-
so it's caused...well it has accentuated
his learning delays really.
-
Come on!
(child muttering)
-
(Alison) Yup. Come and sit.
-
(narrator) Thomas has almost no speech
and very little concentration.
-
They’re both viewed different
from each other.
-
Matthew is quite adventurous
and mischievous.
-
He’s runaway a few times
and being brought back by strangers.
-
People have dialed 111 because he's--
they've found him running along the road.
-
(car engine running)
-
Thomas is a lot more reserved
and he happily kind of sit by himself,
-
but he does still join in.
-
Once someone else is
doing something, he will join in.
-
(child crying)
-
(Alison) Okay. Hop out. Sorry,
I should have asked you. Good boy.
-
(narrator) Alison admits she struggled
to manage the twins in the early years.
-
It was just this whole new world
that we had to get used to.
-
It was-- just the constant demand.
There were lots of appointments that
-
they had to do with checking about
their hearts and respiratory issues
-
and things like that.
-
It was partly the fact
that they had special needs,
-
but also twins with two other children
is quite busy and quite a lot of work.
-
And I think just for me
the emotional side of--
-
for me getting through that first year
was a big thing to get my head around
-
the fact that they weren't the children
that we expected we were going to have.
-
(narrator) We first met
the Whittington family
-
when Thomas and Matthew
were still preschoolers.
-
It was hectic but the family reckons life
with two challenging boys has improved.
-
(John) The boys are getting
toilet trained and that sort of stuff
-
and all those little steps mean
there’s less need to nest them,
-
put off your life for the boys.
-
They can look after themselves
to a larger degree.
-
(Alison) See you later.
-
(narrator) The boys attend
Sunnybrae Primary.
-
The school's welcomed the twins
into its satellite unit,
-
even going that extra mile
and fencing the playground
-
to thwart the adventures
of escape artist Matthew.
-
They couldn't really be
in a better environment.
-
They've got the best of both worlds.
-
They've got the small class
with plenty of teacher
-
and teacher aide support.
-
They've got the benefit
of being in a mainstream school
-
and they're fully involved
in the day-to-day life
-
of the rest of the school.
-
(narrator) Once a week, a group
of older children
-
join the class as buddies;
a role they take seriously,
-
so some boundaries have to be set.
-
- So what's your name?
- Jordan.
-
(narrator) Jordan, so you're
one of the buddies here?
-
Yeah.
-
(narrator) And did you think
before you met the kids here
-
that they'll be this clever?
-
(Jordan) No, but now I know
that Matthew is clever, really clever
-
and that he loves to do
some work and activities.
-
(narrator) It's obvious even Jordan
had to rise up to the fact
-
that Matthew is bit of a trickster.
-
I think the thing is Matthew and Thomas
and the children in their class
-
have taught the rest
of the children at school
-
that there are all sorts
of people in the world
-
with all sorts of abilities
and that's what makes up the world
-
and that is real life.
-
(narrator) In the classroom,
Thomas is learning to (inaudible)
-
Today, he's content to just
stand and play with the piece of fabric.
-
Meanwhile, Matthew has begun
to read and write.
-
Matthew loves school and likes to please,
so he's doing his best to get on and learn
-
to hold his pencil and write
and things like that
-
whereas Thomas still just isn’t interested
in anything like that.
-
He's happy to go to school and be there,
but he still has a lot of difficulty
-
with focusing on what's required on.
-
(Alison) Here we go. Look!
-
(narrator) When the twins were born,
the paediatrician said
-
to simply take life day-by-day,
year-by-year
-
and the Whittington's have done that.
-
They've now got their rhythm;
they don't look too far into the future.
-
We'll just take it a bit more slowly
than rather than now,
-
thinking about what either can do
when they finish school.
