Guest guest Posted March 20, 2001 Report Share Posted March 20, 2001 I am sending the following to the group because of the number of times this has come up in discussion (I did seek an o.k. for posting this off-topic message). A very good discussion of kids who are cognitively challenged is referring to these kids as " mentally retarded. " Here (Canada) we use " mentally challenged " or, even better, " cognitively challenged. " Because we have people on this list from all over, could we avoid the use of " retarded? " The term " retarded " is very negative (just think about how we might feel about the term " deaf and dumb. " ) As parents of challenged children, I would like us to be aware that labels can hurt. My cousin's child is cognitively challenged. My cousin (and other parents in his parenting group) really recoil at the term " retarded. " I have many kids in my school (in a developmental room) who are integrated to a certain point. None of the teens in my school refer to them as " retarded. " Perhaps this is just a Canadian thing, but I thought I'd raise the point. Thanks for understanding my need to advocate for this. Any e-mail on this should be directed to me rather than to the group. Thanks. Cheryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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