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June 2000

• We updated our forum software. Check out our new forum!
• We added a list of our most popular books!

February 2000

• Named "Communication Skills for Children with Down Syndrome" as Book of the Month.

January 2000

• We have a new picture of Mikey!
• Added three new articles to our Questions page. The first new article we are extremely pleased to add to our web site. It was written exclusively for us by Ann Rab Ed.D. Dr. Rab's article deals with finding toys that will stimulate cognitive development and creativity in infants and children.
• The second article is a reprint from the Tribune Medical News Service dealing with Aricept as a potential treatment for Down syndrome.
• The third article is from the Associated Press and deals with a recent finding that people with Down syndrome have a decreased risk for most cancers.
• We added a Health Care Record Sheet that can be used by a parent or physician to insure that the HealthCare guidelines are being followed.
• We have won several new awards and they are proudly displayed on our Awards page. Our thanks go to those who have honored our site.
• Named "Where's Chimpy" as Book of the Month.
• Added a new poem entitled "My Perfect Child" to the "Stories" page.

December 1999

• Named "Babies with Down Syndrome" as Book of the Month. This is the one book every new parent must own.
• The Healthcare Guidelines for Individuals with Down Syndrome has been newly revised and we have the updated version on our website!
• Our site was reviewed on hitbox.com. Here is the review:
  Down a different road - Having a child can be the most wonderful experience of any parent’s life. When that child is born with a challenging quality, it can be very confusing or upsetting. Getting information and learning from the experiences of those who have or are dealing with a similar situation can be very helpful. Down Syndrome: For New Parents is a wonderful site orchestrated by the parents of a child, Mikey, who has Down’s Syndrome. Along with their personal story you will also find references to some great books, a discussion section, and a healthy amount of reference material. This site is easy to navigate and its content is very useful. And thanx to the webmasters for including a sound control so that I could switch off the midi music. He may face many hard knocks on the road ahead, but I think, that with parents like these, in many ways, Mikey is one lucky boy.

November 1999

• Named "Russ and the Apple Tree Surprise" as Book of the Month. This is the first book in a series about Russ, a boy with Down syndrome.
• As you may have noticed, we have added banner advertising to the top of each page on our site. These are CPM ads, pay per view, so please don't feel compelled to click on any of them unless the product advertised is of interest to you. Of course, all payments that we receive for these ads will be donated to the Association for Children with Down Syndrome.

October 1999

• Named "Communication Skills in Children with Down Syndrome" as October Book of the Month. The author, Libby Kumin, is the recognized expert in the field of speech in children with Down Syndrome.
• Updated the site to honor Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

September 1999

• For those who are interested, September has seen our website receive more visitors than we have ever had before. We received nearly 4,000 different visitors. This comes to about 23,000 separate page views. The most popular parts of the web site (other than the forum) are the "Questions" section and the pictures of Mikey!
• Added two new awards to the awards page.
• Named "Negotiating the Special Education Maze" as September Book of the Month. This is an extremely useful book for parents whether they are preparing for an IFSP or an IEP.

August 1999

• Added a poem entitled "Heaven's Very Special Child" to our Stories page.
• Named "Gross Motor Skills in Children with Down Syndrome" by Stephanie Stuve-Boden as August Book of the Month.

July 1999

• Worked on correcting a bunch of spelling errors in the question section.
• Added a new award to the awards page.
• Added a prayer by John Paul Gower, a 14-year old boy with Down syndrome, to the Stories section. The prayer is entitled "The Millenium Prayer".
• Added Mikey's picture from school to the picture page. Although the picture is from last November, it is really the best picture we have of him.
• Named "We'll Paint the Octupus Red" by Stephanie Stuve-Boden as July Book of the Month.

June 1999

• Named "Down Syndrome: A Promising Future, Together" by Terry J. Hassold and David Patterson (Editors) as June Book of the Month.

May 1999

• Since our web site was unavailable for 2 weeks because our free web site provider (MySP) was down, we have decided to leave "Eric's Gift" as our book of the month for a second month. It is a book we highly recommend.

April 1999

• We finally got our own domain http://www.downsyn.com. We are no longer keeping our web site on a free web provider. We have been at GeoCities, CrossWinds, WorldZone, and MySP and have had problems with all of them. Now we are using DigitalSpace which is not free but is still very low cost.
• Named "Eric's Gift: A Mother's Discovery of Love in the 47th Chromosome" by Kimberly Thompson as April Book of the Month.

March 1999

• Added an article by Mary Coleman, M.D. to the Questions section. The article is entitled "Vitamins and Down Syndrome".
• Named "Expecting Adam" by Martha Beck as March Book of the Month.

February 1999

• Although there aren't many visual changes, we have made some "behind the scenes" changes. We have eliminated all the Bravenet services (guestbook, webboard, referral, counter) and have replaced them with our own CGI programs. Bravenet was just too unreliable. Hopefully, running our own CGI will mean the services will be available all the time. We also removed our hit counter although we still have a tracking facility which we use to capture general statistics about who is visting our site. For those who are interested, our index page receives between 100 and 200 impressions per day. If you would like to know more, you can visit this site: Hitbox.
• Named "Jewel" by Brett Lott as February Book of the Month.

January 1999

• Added Dr. Len Leshin's article about vitamin supplementation to the Resources page.
• Added "HealthWatch for Individuals with Down Syndrome" to the Health Care Guidelines. This is a one page summary of the Heath Care Guidelines.
• Added "Down Sydrome: The Facts" to the books list.
• Added "Fine Motor Skills..." to the books list.
• We have created a "Book of the Month" feature on the main page. "Fine Motor Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals" by Maryanne Bruni, BSc OT(C) is our first "book of the month".
• Added several new books to the books for siblings page.
• Updated the medical information page to include much more information.