‘I got this, Mom’
No limits for 11-year-old judo standout with Down syndrome
DALTON — The old proverb says that you must learn how to crawl before you can learn how to walk.
It’s apparent that 11-year-old Chatsworth native Isabella Caggiano doesn’t subscribe to that proverb.
Going against the norm is seemingly in her DNA. Little girls with Down syndrome aren’t supposed to toss kids around on a judo mat and bringing home trophies from competitions.
“She saw her little brother out there tossing people and said, ‘I want to do that,’” mother Tina Caggiano said. “When she wants to do something, she is like, ‘I got this, Mom.’ We try not to hold her back in any way. We say go for it.”
As if they could stop her. Isabella, who attends Northwest Elementary School, is a bouncing ball of energy who hops every time she snaps her “little” brother over her shoulder or sweeps his leg from behind as she throws him down on the mat. Smack! Hop, hop, hop. Again! Smack! Hop, hop hop. Giggle.
It’s hard to hold down a little girl whose favorite super hero is Supergirl.
“That’s my favorite costume,” Isabella said. “She’s going to be Super Woman one day.”
That’s the way her parents see her, too.
“We never began in anything telling her you can or can’t do this,” her father Vince Caggiano said. “We never had any limitations on her. She has been extraordinary since day one. She’s never been a typical child, much less a typical special needs child.”