Chicago Special Needs Photographer | Naperville Photographer | A Journey

This family was very special to photograph for many reasons.  First, I actually grew up with the mom – well, more her older brother, but still.  She and her family were in town over the holidays from Virginia.  I think they win for my farthest east coast client so far. 😉  They also have five year old twins, and while I photograph plenty of twins, I very rarely get the opportunity to photograph identical twins.  As if all that wasn’t enough, these twins also have a fairly rare condition – Angelman Syndrome.

The syndrome is a deletion in Chromosome 15 and as such is considered neuro-genetic disorder. The syndrome is characterized by seizures, lack of speech, ataxia, jerky movements (such as hand flapping or rocking), sleep disturbance, frequent laughter or smiling with a very happy demeanor, and intellectual and developmental delays.  These girls were originally diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at the age of 18 months. After months of therapy and little progress in areas such as speech, they had genetic testing and the subsequent Angelman Syndrome diagnosis when the girls were about three.

You can learn more about Angelman Syndrome and help raise awareness through the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, Inc (which is ironically headquartered in Aurora).

So, as for our session, the girls were pretty happy, but they were active and did not do anything they didn’t want to do. 😉  At one point, one accidentally bumped the other with her head and knocked out her tooth (it was already loose).  I am so happy to have met them and seen their mom again (whom I haven’t seen since I graduated high school).