One of the major discussions in American special education has been whether or not the term "Mentally Retarded" should be changed to "Intellectual Disability". In fact, the movement has been gaining more and more traction. It will eventually become reality in both IDEA and the new DSM (5th edition, due out in 2013). The CDC appears to have already made the switch. Make no mistake, "mentally retarded" will soon be a thing of the past in the worlds of psychology and education. To so many, the reasons to make this change seem so obvious. However, there are a large number of my fellow special education teachers who I have talked to about this subject and are actually against the change. Surprising as this may seem, there is a point to be made for their case.
To the parent of someone who is told that there son or daughter has been diagnosed with a disability, the reality of the news is often very tough to accept. This is especially true for someone whose kids are labeled MR. For starters, there is the stigma of the label. Terms such as "moron", "feeble-minded", "mongoloid" and "idiot" were at one time actual labels used for individuals with various levels of this disability by medical professionals, both in American and elsewhere. While most individuals in our society know better today than to actually use those terms, there are still people who can't help but feel such terms (or rather, ideas of what what such a person would look like) are apt for ID individuals, even if they don't say it out loud.
Parents of these children, upon learning of their child's disability, will also start envisioning a different type of future for their child than they perhaps had originally envisioned. Questions such as "will my child go to college?", and possible dreams about their child growing up to a doctor, lawyer, etc. are now being replaced by questions such as "will I have to support my child for the rest of their life?", and replaced by visions of a their grown up children not being able to work at a job. Although the reality of many grown up individuals with IDs are not always as predetermined or uniform as that, expectations about what that child's life will look like do narrow. Most parents would do just about anything to not have that label put on their child. No parent wants to deal with the stigma, or the realities that can accompany it.
The argument for keeping the MR-label goes that if a child with the disability is labeled as ID, then their parents might not accept the reality of their child's situation. Expectations for what their child can do become increasingly unrealistic. This, despite the fact that changing the name does not change the criteria for diagnosis, nor does it change the educational supports that go along with it, or the likely prospects for what that child's future holds.
Perhaps an outside observer, maybe even one with a loved one who has an ID, thinks I am being insensitive. Perhaps, I appear to feel as if most parents with ID students are naive about their child's situation. Let me make it clear that I do not feel most parents of such children are naive, and do understand their child's situation. Let me also make it clear that there are plenty of good options out there for ID students to have a quality post-secondary education, and go on to support themselves, especially if their disability is not as severe. Finally, I do feel there are flaws with the way we diagnose children with an ID, and that we should have better options for the way we diagnose and educate these students (I will save those views for another post).
Perhaps an outside observer, maybe even one with a loved one who has an ID, thinks I am being insensitive. Perhaps, I appear to feel as if most parents with ID students are naive about their child's situation. Let me make it clear that I do not feel most parents of such children are naive, and do understand their child's situation. Let me also make it clear that there are plenty of good options out there for ID students to have a quality post-secondary education, and go on to support themselves, especially if their disability is not as severe. Finally, I do feel there are flaws with the way we diagnose children with an ID, and that we should have better options for the way we diagnose and educate these students (I will save those views for another post).
But working primarily with ID students at the high school level, I also know there are plenty of parents who are not as realistic about their child's future. Some parents I work with still think their teenagers can go onto be doctors, lawyers, or even go into the military, despite the fact that they have an MR-label and function academically and/or cognitively well bellow age/grade level. It is not unreasonable to think that switching the label to ID might make more parents of such students feel that their child has a less severe disability than they do. To put it more bluntly, there will be some more parents who will not get what actually lies in store for their child because the "r-word" is not there.
With that argument out of the way, we should still change the label from "mentally retarded" to "intellectually disabled". Yes, this subject is about political correctness and catering to the sensitivities of others. However, political correctness is not always a bad thing, especially when we are talking about the language on official medical, psychological, and government documents and records. The reality is that the stigma of the MR label is real, and we as professionals should be willing to evolve in the language we use, just as we evolved when we stopped using terms like "idiot" and "moron". Similarly, we evolved when stopped calling individuals with physical disabilities "cripples" or "gimps". Why should this word be any different?
I have chewed out non-ID students who have called my students "retards", and have shown my disapproval at adults and non-adults alike who use the term with others as a joke or an insult. But with my disprovable comes the a slight feeling of hypocrisy due to the fact that it is still an official term that is used in my profession, even though I have no control over it. Granted, the individuals who use it (or rather, misuse it) in the way I just described are doing it in the wrong context. But the overwhelming belief out in non-education circles is that MR is actually not used anymore because it does have such a negative connotation. Even some individuals who use it as an insult/joke are amazed when they find out that it is still an official term. Changing the term is such an obvious decision to make that so many people outside of special education know it.
As for the issue of parents accepting the realities of having a child with an ID, it needs to be our responsibility as professionals to make sure parents know what the disability is, and what the realities of it are. No teacher wants to tell a parent that the expectations for their child are too high. Indeed, one of the reasons I became a special education teacher was to uplift and motivate students with disabilities, and that their options in life aren't limited simply because they have an IEP. As someone with both a learning disability and Attention Deficit Disorder, my parents and I often ran into teachers growing up who told me I would never go to college because I had an IEP. Well, this motivated me to work hard in school and prove them wrong (which I did).
However, an intellectual disability is significantly different than a learning disability, and we as special educators and professionals should do a better job of letting parents know the severity of their child's disability. We should do that by letting them know what an intellectual disability is, and what are the long-term realities are. After that, we let them know that everything will be o.k., and that there are options for their child to lead a happy, and "potentially" independent life. It is not an easy thing to do, but it is the right thing to do.
I have chewed out non-ID students who have called my students "retards", and have shown my disapproval at adults and non-adults alike who use the term with others as a joke or an insult. But with my disprovable comes the a slight feeling of hypocrisy due to the fact that it is still an official term that is used in my profession, even though I have no control over it. Granted, the individuals who use it (or rather, misuse it) in the way I just described are doing it in the wrong context. But the overwhelming belief out in non-education circles is that MR is actually not used anymore because it does have such a negative connotation. Even some individuals who use it as an insult/joke are amazed when they find out that it is still an official term. Changing the term is such an obvious decision to make that so many people outside of special education know it.
As for the issue of parents accepting the realities of having a child with an ID, it needs to be our responsibility as professionals to make sure parents know what the disability is, and what the realities of it are. No teacher wants to tell a parent that the expectations for their child are too high. Indeed, one of the reasons I became a special education teacher was to uplift and motivate students with disabilities, and that their options in life aren't limited simply because they have an IEP. As someone with both a learning disability and Attention Deficit Disorder, my parents and I often ran into teachers growing up who told me I would never go to college because I had an IEP. Well, this motivated me to work hard in school and prove them wrong (which I did).
However, an intellectual disability is significantly different than a learning disability, and we as special educators and professionals should do a better job of letting parents know the severity of their child's disability. We should do that by letting them know what an intellectual disability is, and what are the long-term realities are. After that, we let them know that everything will be o.k., and that there are options for their child to lead a happy, and "potentially" independent life. It is not an easy thing to do, but it is the right thing to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment