Stories

Stories

< back to stories

Hannah Perillo

Jun 29, 2007

At 7 years old, Hannah Perillo is already a veteran student at Elim Christian School. Now in her 3rd year at Elim, she has learned and grown tremendously since her enrollment. Diagnosed with two heart defects and Down Syndrome, Hannah is a sweet and happy young girl who loves participating in her class circle time and working at the calendar.

Kelly Potrawski, Hannah’s classroom teacher said, “During Hannah’s time at Elim, she has become much more social. She likes to play and interact with her peers. She loves playing with balls and dancing. She’s currently learning pre-reading skills like matching, letter recognition, and sight words. She now knows all of her shapes and colors and we’re soon planning to introduce her to numbers.”

This progress is a reaffirmation to Hannah’s parents, Joseph and Andrea, that they made the right decision by sending Hannah to Elim. Andrea said, “We knew that we wanted Hannah at Elim for several reasons. We heard so many good things about the school, the Assistive Technology devices, and the special services they provide for kids with special needs.”

Hannah’s family has also seen tremendous growth throughout the past few years. Andrea said, “Hannah has done great at Elim. She has improved so much. When she started at Elim, she could only take 5-10 steps. The staff really worked with her and she took off walking. Right now, they’re teaching her to go up and down stairs and how to ride a tricycle. Though Hannah is currently fed through a feeding tube, Elim’s staff is working with her to teach her to eat.”

Though Hannah is largely non-verbal, her family and Elim’s staff are always striving to find ways to help her communicate more effectively. Right now, her classroom teacher and helpers communicate with her through signing. While Hannah currently communicates through pictures and gesturing, her caregivers expect she will be able to use an augmentative communication device in the coming years.

Overall, Hannah’s family and caregivers at Elim have one overall goal – to see Hannah continue to grow academically and socially. Andrea said, “We’d really like to see Hannah keep progressing. We want her to learn to communicate better and to be more self-sufficient. She’s such a happy little girl and always smiling. That’s the most important thing to us.”