Sherry

[Guest guest]

Hi Sherry!

You are so right!! Call this people with " ABC Syndrome " - whatever you want- as

long as our sons/daughters get the $/ resources that they need. Unfortunately,

there will always be folks who don't get it, don't want to get it and will be

insensitve. It's just like school bullies, corrupt politicians- they've been

around forever and sadly always will be.

We can certainly educate/enlighten as we go along, but at the end of the day, we

just want our children to have access to the tools that they need to be

successful, just like anyone else, period. Lifelong advocacy for our kids is a

reality- often exhausting and not fair, and requires a tremendous amount of

patience/endurance.

BTW, you can't go out to pasture!! If you go, we'll have to follow you! I love

your sense of humor and appreciate your candor and wisdom on so many occasions.

Best,

Mom to , 7 yrs. old DS-PDD/NOS

Northern New Jersey

Colon Cancer Survivor, 3/19/10

To:

From: gldcst@...

Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 23:47:32 -0400

Subject: Re: opinion piece in the Early Childhood News

Some history to think about when using other " more acceptable " language. Most

people think nothing of using the word imbecile, moron or idiot......wonder how

the parents of these folks a century ago felt? Will " retard " turn into the same

type of acceptable slang?

Or maybe even " intellectually disabled " will be the next forbidden phrase. I

would dearly love to know the exact amount of money spent to erase the word

" retarded " from all of our PC agencies, political papers, and even the ARC for

that matter. And mentally retarded was such a pleasant expression coming on the

heels of Mongoloid.

Sheesh....just give them the $ and call them whatever you like. I know I

know....I've been around too long. Somebody put me out to pasture.

From wikipedia

>>>>In 19th and early 20th century medicine and psychology, an " idiot " was a

person with a very severe mental retardation. In the early 1900s, Dr. Henry H.

Goddard proposed a classification system for mental retardation based on the

Binet-Simon concept of mental age. Individuals with the lowest mental age level

(less than three years) were identified as idiots; imbiciles (sic) had a mental

age of three to 7 years, and morons had a mental age of seven to ten years.[7]

IQ, or intelligence quotient, is determined by dividing a person's mental age,

as determined by standardized tests, by their actual age. The term " idiot " was

used to refer to people having an IQ below 30.[8][9]

In current medical classification, these people are now said to have profound

mental retardation.[1]<<<<<

Sherry