At a distance, it may seem to be an ordinary, if a little old-fashioned, doll. But look up close and you will see that it is, in fact, quite unusual.
The protruding tongue, almond-shaped eyes, flattened nose and low ears all make it very different to most shop-bought toys.
So do the small mouth, short fingers and the horizontal crease across the palm of the hands.This is a Down’s syndrome doll which has been designed with the characteristics of children born with the condition.
It’s one of an increasingly popular — but hugely controversial — range of dolls with different disabilities produced to give youngsters with health problems a toy with which they can identify.
The manufacturers claim such dolls, which are finding a growing market in Britain, help ‘normalise’ conditions like Down’s syndrome so young sufferers don’t feel so different from their friends. They even say such dolls may help make disabled people more accepted by society. Children undergoing cancer treatment can get ‘chemo’ dolls which are bald and come complete with headscarves. Others are available with hearing aids, glasses, guide dogs, wheelchairs, crutches and leg braces.
Many parents of disabled children have welcomed the dolls as a realistic alternative to the physical perfection of the Baby Annabells already on the market.
Others, however, dismiss them as a sick joke. In fact, their detractors believe they only emphasise a disabled child’s differences to their able-bodied friends.
Civil servant Sue Farren, from Durham, whose daughter Rebecca has cerebral palsy and has to use a wheelchair, is horrified by the very idea.
She says: ‘To me, creating disabled dolls like these and giving them to a child pigeon-holes the disabled and turns them into something akin to a freak show.
‘It seems as if the disability is being highlighted here, whereas most disabled kids just want to blend in and be accepted for who they are — Rebecca doesn’t even like her disability being referred to.
‘Also, it worries me that able-bodied children might treat these dolls as a figure of fun. Life is difficult enough as a disabled child, as Rebecca will testify, without this unwelcome attention.’Her daughter was 13 months’ old when doctors diagnosed cerebral palsy, but it hasn’t held her back.
Sue, 50, says: ‘Rebecca is 14 now — a very bright girl who is in mainstream school, taking eight GCSEs, and is predicted to do well and hopefully go on to university. She likes to feel there is very little she cannot do, and I think that to have given her a doll when she was younger which highlighted her disability could have knocked her confidence.
