Dance program for children with Down syndrome strives to attract new Canadians

Inside an old brown-bricked school in New Edinburgh, teachers have been using music and dance to teach children with Down syndrome how to understand math.

Right now, the DragonFly program at Ottawa's School of Dance only has four newcomers — but organizers are determined to change that. 

"Obviously, the idea was to grow the program and get our services out to as many people as we can," said Barbara Roblin, DragonFly's director of education.

"Some groups were a lot easier to find. The people that were very difficult to find were new Canadians, people of low income, people who are marginalized for one reason or another."

Integrating music and physical movement actually helps teach and learn about mathematics and reading."  -  Merrilee Hodgins, DragonFly 's dance director

For the past eight years, DragonFly has been providing individualized learning programs for children, using the arts as a tool.

The school makes use of dance and music to encourage practise and repetition. Some students start the program when they're only six months old. Others are as old as 27. 

"What we've discovered as educators is that process that we use in dance — integrating music and physical movement — actually helps teach and learn about mathematics and reading," said Merrilee Hodgins, the school's dance director.

"Part of it is the rhythmic repeating that we do, and the fact that we're actually using a muscle group to learn how we should repeat something."

Pushing through barriers 

Roblin noticed that DragonFly wasn't attracting new Canadians, so she reached out to doctors and schools to ensure that — despite language and cultural barriers — immigrants knew about the program.

Many new Canadians have trouble navigating Canada's complex social services network in Canada, said Roblin.

Without the right connections or proficiency in English, it becomes difficult to find affordable resources for children with Down syndrome, she said.

"They come and are grateful to be in a new country and they don't want to be demanding," said Roblin. "[But] when you have a child with special needs, you need to be an advocate."

Escaping the war in Lebanon  

Nada El Mais's nine-year-old daughter Tala is one of the four children in the program who recently immigrated to Canada.

The family escaped war in Lebanon in 2006, and lived temporarily in the United Arab Emirates before moving to Canada in 2013. 

El Mais, 46, said the family faced many hurdles before immigrating. In the UAE, she said, public programs to support children with Down syndrome weren't offered to temporary residents.

Private programs were costly, El Mais added, and there was a cultural stigma and unfamiliarity with her daughter's condition. 

"You get strange looks — just staring as if you have a monster in your stroller," she told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning. "Sometimes this hurts. You feel like everyone is looking at you in a strange way."

It took several years for the family to arrive in Canada, as their application was delayed by three years after El Mais told Canadian authorities that she had a daughter with Down syndrome and leukemia.

Desperate, she wrote wrote an emotional letter to the authorities, pleading for a safe place for her kids. The family got their Canadian visas two months later, she said. 

'She's a busy bee'

The family was introduced to the program through Tala's public school, and she's now been at DragonFly for two years. 

"She's an active child. She's a busy bee — she makes me [run] all day long!" El Mais said. 

Her tuition is covered by an Ontario grant called the multicultural community capacity grant. Without it, the Tuesday program would cost $930 per term.

For many other children, their tuition is subsidized by the School of Dance in Ottawa. 

DragonFly's organizers say they've just received additional funding from the province, and are hoping the multicultural grant is renewed so that they can bring in even more new Canadian children.