[Kev - Adam’s dad]
Bike riding and cycling is a big part of what we do as a family.
We do have a tandem bike.
Which he, we can cover a lot more km with him on.
And we have had him doing blue runs at Mystic Bike Park.
Which we got some interesting looks.
But now he wants very much to be independent, like a 12, 13 year old boy So, he wants his own two wheel mountain bike.
[Julie - Adam’s mum]
Adam was born in 2011.
The day didn't go as planned.
The paediatrician noticed right away that there was some anomalies with his the crease on his hand.
Characteristics that they generally notice in kids with Down syndrome.
It was a big learning curve because we really I hadn't had any exposure to Down syndrome.
So, we were really learning a lot in that first six or 12 months trying to connect in with other families, doing a lot of reading, what would assist him?
What's going to benefit him in the long term?
Speech therapists.
We were already looking at ways to build up muscle tone that he might need.
[Adam - Participant]
My name is Adam. I am twelve. I am in grade six.
[Julie - Adam’s mum]
We've been with the Scheme for ten years, if not a little bit more now.
So almost right from the start.
So, when Adam was a toddler, we were fortunate enough to get into the Better Start scheme and then it transitioned across to NDIA and we engaged speech therapists from day one.
That was our priority.
We have engaged physiotherapists over the last ten years as well.
And we've had OTs as well, especially around that kinda transitioning to primary school, getting him to hold a pen, use scissors because he's always struggled with the fine motor skills.
[Adam - Participant]
I love sport. Football, soccer, tennis, are the best
[Kev - Adam’s dad]
He plays tennis just at our local club.
Soccer at Drysdale soccer club.
But then he loves basketball.
So, he's done his first full length park run recently so five k's.
He's done competed in a cross country three years now.
He did the athletics last year with school.
And as I say, he got to the state level.
Swimming, he does his swimming lessons.
There was a stage at school where we had, you know, the teachers and the aides and the AP’s working with Adam.
Then we had his, some of his NDIS therapist coming into school as well.
You know, the speech therapists were coming into school.
His OT was coming into school.
And I'm not sure who started it, but the subject line on the emails that started going around was Team Adam.
And it really felt like Team Adam to have all these people pulling together to help him.
If we hadn't have had the NDIS funding for to have those people coming in and we wouldn't have had team Adam.
Big push is to get him riding on a two wheeler on his own.
And so, we've got a physio that we're working with, and the focus is to get him riding a pushbike on his own.
As in, will you be able to ride?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
He'll be doing Mystic Bike Park on his own at some stage soon, hopefully.
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