"mental retardation" to "intellectual disability

This is a post from the about.com forum "special needs" which I thought was interesting

HI Terri,

    This is Cynthia. I used to post a lot, but so many other things have been demanding my attention, I just haven't gotten around to it. But I still sometimes read your blog, and you're as good as ever!

I'd like to make a comment on legally changing the term "mental retardation" to "intellectual disability."  When I think about these labels, it occurs to me that they just do not appear to convey anywhere close to the same meaning.  My son, now 16, was diagnosed at three with autism and moderate mental retardation.

The moderate retardation is now bordering the severe. He functions at a 2 to 7-year-old level depending on the task or situation. He has a small vocabulary, but still his speech is hard to understand (especially for outsiders, and still sometimes even to us). He can read kindergarten and first grade readers, but mostly we make him his own books featuring his interests. He can sight read, but the only phonics he understands is beginning sounds --- blending and sounding out is beyond him.  He cannot do any math beyond counting to 30, and some simple addition using real objects.

On the bright side, he likes learning about animals and their habitats so we've focused a lot on that. He's got a very good memory for the names of animals, what they eat, and even, sometimes, where they live. He can also identify traditional clothes from other countries.  He loves watching transformers on TV, and repeatedly on youtube. and he loves Disneyland and anything to do with MIckey and Minnie Mouse, and their buddies. He also loves watching college football --especially the mascots. We live in Oregon so he's particularly thrilled with the Oregon duck!

He is usually loving, but occasionally he hits me (not very hard) when frustrated.

At any rate, "intellectual disability" does not come close to giving anyone a real idea of his disabilities and challenges. It's not only that he's not intellectual, he would have a hard time holding his own in an everyday conversation with a 3-year-old.  Really, he doesn't understand much of the world. Most academics are way beyond him.

So, I'd prefer a different term than the empty intellectual disabilities. One that conveys some idea of what we're talking about. At least with mental retardation, people knew exactly what I meant. and it helped people quickly make allowances and include him in a way that was helpful for him and us.

 

Cynthia

In the UK, my understanding is that "mental retardation" and "mental impairment" have been replaced by the term "learning disabilities," which given what that term means in the US always kind of makes my head spin.

I think the term "mental retardation" is still going to be with us for a while; it's easier to replace it in federal law than in people's perceptions. Certainly if you feel it's a term that gets your son the understanding he needs, there's nothing to keep you from using it. I think coming up with one term that works for everybody is going to be hard, since there's such a wide range of abilities and disabilities trying to fit under one umbrella. Anything that accentuates the challenges is going to sound wrong to those who want to accentuate the abilities, and vice versa.

-- Terri