Pooja and Vivek Mittal on surviving the lockdown with a special child

During the lockdown, Pooja Mittal started using lessons from Down's Syndrome workshops abroad for daughter Norah, and ed these on Instagram to offer others easy access.

Pooja and Vivek Mittal, 37
Documentors of Down's Syndrome lessons

Disability has a stigma attached to it and, when Pooja and Vivek Mittal's daughter Norah was born with Down's Syndrome, the mother was only able to see the child as someone incapable of living a good life, having real relationships and with life-long developmental, cognitive and physical impairment. "But, when our perception changed, we saw Norah for the child she was, her feisty personality, likes and dislikes, her ability to express herself even when she was non-verbal and the real connections she was developing with people around. In order to show what Down's Syndrome and disability really means, I started documenting our family life on Instagram. Our normal may be different from people around us, but it is still normal for us. The only hope we had was to change the narrative around disability," says Pooja.

With the lockdown extending, the Mittals noticed regression in Norah's progress. "Since therapies hadn't started online, I decided to train Norah myself, taking cue from the intensive training I had undergone on our trips abroad. I had the videos of all these sessions so I began implementing lessons. It transformed me from the mother who was running around from one therapy session to another, into one who was spending time with Norah, applying the strategies, working on developing her physical and gross motor skills. It was such an amazing feeling to see her adapt beautifully. The pandemic helped me pause and enjoy the journey. I decided to share it on Instagram as a way of paying forward and helping those who did not have access to such resources. Norah hasn't made us think out of the box. She made us realise, our box was different and we had to make it beautiful, together."

Pooja and Vivek Mittal with Norah

Vivek admits that the idea of sharing stemmed from watching parents in other countries being open about expressing their thoughts and vulnerabilities.

"When Norah was born, we joined quite a few groups of parents with Down's babies of all ages. Everyone shared everything—what worked, what didn't. And there was an audience at every stage listening and putting those ideas to work on their child. If we can learn from videos and apply it on Norah, so can any parent watching us online," he says.

Pooja, who is a pro now at documenting videos on her phone, without making Norah conscious, says, "There is no better therapist for your child but you. The idea is to normalise it so even those without the money or access to expert resources can benefit from therapies. Amongst other things, Norah's therapies have taught me patience and that my mental health is as important as the physical and cognitive abilities of my child."

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