Hello! My name is Hayden and I’m 11 years old. I go to Brooks School Elementary and I’m in 4th grade. My brother, Ben, has Down syndrome. He is 21 years old. This is his second year of the vocational program at Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) High School. What advice would you share for other siblings who have special a special needs brother or sister? My advice for others would be to be patient and helpful. My mom always said I speak two languages...English and “Ben”. His speech has gotten better over the years, but sometimes I have to tell my mom what he means because I just get him. What is your favorite memory with Ben? One of our favorite memories is camping in our backyard with our family. Ben and I love getting the tent organized for the night. We make s’mores and sit by the fire and eat them! Yummy!! We also make amazing memories at our cabin in Canada in the summer time. We like to play silly games in the cabin. Is there a funny story you would like share about you and Ben? My parents always laugh when they tell me about Ben cheating when he was teaching me to play Candyland. He would stack the deck so the special cards would be his. What do you admire about Ben and how has that inspired you to become a better person? Ben is VERY, VERY, VERY organized. He motivates me to be organized too. Ben has to work hard to learn easier things and it motivates me to work hard too.
siblings perspective By Erin Baoz
Meet
&
Hayden Ben
24 Special Needs Living • April 2021
Are there any challenges you have had to overcome having a special needs brother? Sometimes Ben will go out with his friends and he doesn’t want me to come if I wanted to come with him. Sometimes Ben will continue do things for me now that I’m older when I can do it myself. How do you enjoy spending time with Ben? Ben and I LOVEEEEEEE to watch Sound Of Music with our mom. We watch it during Christmas time. It’s a tradition we do EVERY SINGLE YEAR. I also enjoy playing Mario Kart with Ben. Sometimes Ben might always beat me, but I don’t really care if he wins. We also play UNO. Sometimes I win or I lose, but we ALWAYS have fun with each other. We also play this silly game that we made up, but we really don’t even know what it’s called. It’s where we give someone some random ears like a unicorn horn, bunny ears, or moose ears. It’s pretty silly. As long as we have so much fun and laugh together a lot, that is ALL that matters with each other. And yes, we do LOVE spending time with each other.
Do you have a sibling with special needs and would like to share your story & perspective in an upcoming issue of Special Needs Living? Email us at SpecialNeedsLivingIndy@n2pub.com.
