{"id":410,"date":"2019-12-01T12:37:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T01:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/?p=410"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:33:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T01:33:51","slug":"connecting-beyond-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/2019\/12\/01\/connecting-beyond-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting beyond words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">This article is available in the following formats<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Click to download<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/03\/Connecting_beyond_words_Voice_December2019_web.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/03\/Connecting_beyond_words_Voice_December_2019-1.docx\">Word<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p>Alex Procopis and Joe Surawski met when they were 12 years old. The both have Down syndrome and autism and don\u2019t use words as their main form of communication. <strong>Brian Procopis<\/strong> is Alex\u2019s dad and in this wonderful article, he shows us all the ways Alex and Joe\u2019s friendship has developed and grown over the years. He discusses how both families have built a creative and joy-filled life for the boys while looking for other ways for the boys to communicate beyond words<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/03\/Joe-and-Alex-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Joe &amp; Alex\" class=\"wp-image-411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/03\/Joe-and-Alex-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/03\/Joe-and-Alex-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Music has been an integral part of life for both Alex and Joe and it was down this path that a unique and incredible talent was discovered. Alex has a distinct singing ability that was celebrated by Zimbabwean musician Tichawona Noble Mashawa and vocalist\/drummer Velvet Pesu resulting in an incredible piece of work designed to communicate with the Elephants<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alex is a singer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see the results of the work here: <em>Elephant Whisperer &#8211; Giant Hearts<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Alex Procopis - Elephant Whisperer - Giant Hearts   Part 1:The Story\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2oT8Bj7KE9s?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>See more of Alex\u2019s work, including performances at Woodford Folk Festival at his YouTube channel &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCRsFrcGcQvq9k4Q4AiRhCag\">Alex and the Elephants<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Joe is a songwriter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Joe and Brian have also been working on writing songs together and the three of them gave an impromptu performance at a workshop held by Down Syndrome Australia staff in Brisbane in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the fantastic song here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Joe and Alex song\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VUlNjKQTr3I?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is available in the following formats Click to download Alex Procopis and Joe Surawski met when they were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"410,1121,31808,1802,1852,7923","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}