LEWISTON - Ten-year-old Rudy Castellano knows someone with Down syndrome. He knows what it's like to be different, to struggle in certain situations, to have a disability.

But on Monday, the Longley Elementary School fourth-grader learned something more.

"Just because people have problems, they can still do everything everyone else can do," he said.

Castellano and 33 other Longley fourth-graders spent the morning with instructors from the Jeremiah Cromwell Disabilities Center, a Portland-based nonprofit that works to educate people about disabilities. The students talked about physical, developmental and learning disabilities and the challenges that people with those disabilities face. Through games and activities, they learned that assumptions - especially those based on appearance - can be wrong. At one point, they tried making origami cups using jumbled instructions to experience what Dyslexia would feel like.

"We felt very confused," Castellano said.

The program spans grades three, four and five and has been sponsored at Longley by Northeast Bank for the past two years. Many of this year's fourth-graders attended the once-a-year session last year and are expected to finish the program next year.

Teacher Melodie Dionne hoped Monday's session would help her fourth-graders learn to be more sympathetic and patient with others.

"To realize we all have our own disabilities in our own ways," she said.

Alex Gerry, 9, said he liked the program because it emphasized teamwork and helping others.

"We got to work with people," he said.

Castellano called the program "cool." He believed his classmates learned that it's not bad to have a disability.

"It's pretty normal," he said.