Doll World Magazine
December 2002 Issue

God’s Special Children
by Virginia Davis

While Donna Moore was working with a special-needs board for children with severe disabilities, a five-year-old with Down syndrome became a favorite of hers, and spent many afternoons with her and her family. After resigning her position due to an inherited visual problem, Donna began researching Down syndrome and found that one out of every 800 children born has Down syndrome. She also found that children with Down syndrome are drawn to others with the same condition.

She became convinced that Down syndrome children would benefit from a doll that was like them, so working in conjunction with designer, Jerri McCloud, a doll was sculpted to reflect the appearance of a child with Down syndrome. The doll has slanted eyes, a flat bridge across the nose, a small mouth with a visible tongue, small ears, small hands with short fingers, and a single crease in the palm of each hand; the pinkie fingers curve inward, and each foot has a gap between the first and second toe of the flat feet. Since a large percentage of these children have heart defects that require surgery, a red heart with stitches on the chest is embroidered on the dolls

Eventually, Moore would like to create a doll resembling a three-year-old child with this disability.

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Specialty Reader
For the Purveyor of Fine Toys and Gifts

February 1998 Vol. 3 No. 3

PEEK AT WHAT'S NEW FOR '98

Designing Toys for Special Needs Children

Why aren't there more manufacturers that make toys designed specifically for children with special needs? The answer for those interviewed was that "mainstream" toys are fine for play as long as the purchase is thought out. "It is possible to find something good in almost every product line," says Diana Nielander of the National Lekotek Center.

The other reason is expense. "Many times if a toy is labeled educational or special needs, there is another 10-20 percent rise in the cost," says Deborah Aaron of ZZ Toys located on Amelia Island, FL. "They know the parent will do anything they can for that child."

But Nielander says that there is this "underground world" of manufacturers that make toys for kids with special needs. Oftentimes the products are very expensive and usually intended for a child who is severely handicapped.
There is one manufacturer trying their hands at creating dolls for children with Down syndrome. The dolls, from a South Carolina-based company called Downi Creations, have the characteristics of a Down syndrome child, such as a small mouth with a slightly protruding tongue, the nose with a flattened bridge, and small ears set low on the head.

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PEE DEE MAGAZINE

Donna Moore: Still Meeting Special Needs

By Jacki Madewell

"When a child with Down syndrome picks up a regular doll, he doesn't see himself, he sees the worlds' perception of 'perfect.' I want that child to be able to hold and cuddle a doll that looks like him and see that he is, in his own way, perfect, too."

(The following are excerpts from a longer article.)

Growing up in Bennettsville during the 50's and 60's, Chalmers and Libby Huey's youngest daughter knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life. Inspired by her second grade teacher, Donna knew she wanted to teach.

"Ms. Napier was just the most wonderful teacher a child could wish for," Donna Huey Moore recalls. "I wanted to become a teacher just like her." But just as Ms. Napier would marry and move away, Donna's life and plans would also change. Now the owner of Downi Creations, an exclusive line of exquisite dolls, the child-who-wanted-to-be-a-teacher has found a special way to touch lives by creating dolls with the distinctive features of children with Down syndrome. Donna herself is uniquely qualified to empathize with those who daily deal with physical limitations.

Donna was in seventh grade when she was diagnosed with a rare eye disease, pseudoxanthoma elasticum with angiod streaks, which also affects her brother. Donna's vision remained largely unimpaired for many years. After high school, she graduated from Wingate College and then attended Francis Marion University, studying for a degree in early childhood education.

...In 1985 (while working at Bankers Trust in Columbia, SC), she began losing the central vision in her right eye. Undaunted by her failing vision, Donna pursued her dream of teaching, a dream that had narrowed to a specific field -- teaching children with special needs. She worked as a teacher's assistant in special needs classrooms and eventually completed her Education degree at Columbia College. In 1995, the central vision in Donna's left eye began to deteriorate and within months, she was "legally blind."

"I spent many months in prayer," she says, "trying to find purpose in my life again. It was a difficult time but I knew God had a purpose for me, so I kept praying and waiting.

"Then one morning in the Summer of 1996, a voice literally woke me up," she recalls. "I very distinctly heard, 'Create a doll with Down syndrome." I was so excited, I immediately called Jim (husband, Jim Moore) and said, "I know what I'm supposed to do."

...Three dolls -- Kathryn, Elizabeth and Timothy -- launched Downi Creations at the National Down Syndrome Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in August, 1997, where they were acclaimed by parents and professionals involved with children with Down syndrome. At the 1998 conference, they also received praise from entertainer Chris Burke, who played "Corky," a young man with Down syndrome, on the television series, "Life Goes On." Burke, who has Down syndrome, was delighted with the dolls that looked so much like him when he was a baby.
This kind of acclaim is proof of the Moore's diligent research into the chromosomal disorder that occurs in about one of every 800 births.

Intensive research led the Moores to sculptor Jerri McCloud of Charlotte, an owner and artist for Dolls by Jerri. McCloud first created a porcelain prototype, which Donna refined to better resemble a child with Down syndrome. The collaboration resulted in exquisitely hand-painted faces with almond shaped eyes, a flattened bridge across the nose, and other features of the syndrome. The back of the head features a flat spot and the hands feature shortened fingers with the pinkie curved inward and a horizontal crease across the palm. The feet have shortened toes with a gap between the first and second toes.

While head, hands and feet are vinyl, the bodies are soft and huggable, with a life-like feel to them. The clothing is removable. Each baby also has an "incision scar" on the chest beside a red embroidered heart, since many babies with Down syndrome are born with heart defects that require early surgery. Included with each doll is a certificate of authenticity and a special poem.

...Although the dolls were initially designed to delight children with Down syndrome and their families, Donna hopes they prove to be educational to others.