Disability Q&Apermalink
Mental Retardation vs. ?
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I live in the US, and work with adults with developmental disabilities. We still use the term "Mental Retardation" as a diagnosis, but I have heard that's not acceptable in the UK. What is the term you use?
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We say Learning Disability or Intellectual Impairment - the former being the term used in the schools system and can be prefixed by Mild, Moderate or Severe... and then 'Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty' is, for some reason, the last (most severe) label and describes people who are considered to have profound intellectual impairment, and who often have additional mobility and/or sensory impairments. I say 'considered to have' because I know at least three owners of that last label for whom it has turned out to be spectacularly inaccurate; we have a long and disgraceful tradition in the education system about making blanket assumptions about very small children's future potential, and worse, basing schooling decisions on said assumptions often made at only 2 or 3 years of age.
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The term mental retardation is unacceptable and insulting! We refer to people with learning disabilities and they are happy with that. How on earth do your people feel?
I live in the US, and work with adults with developmental disabilities. We still use the term "Mental Retardation" as a diagnosis, but I have heard that's not acceptable in the UK. What is the term you use?
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How interesting, in your original post, you used the phrase I've been hearing most often here (I'm in the US). My impression is that even in the US "developmental disability" is overtaking "Mental Retardation" as correct terminology.
In the US, "learning disabilities" are classified as something completely different.This is a reply to this message.
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I did psychology at uni in the 90's in the Uk and we used midly mentally retarded for anyone with an IQ of between 60-80 (i think, I did not do too many lectures).
I still use it as i do not do PC terminology as i think it is uneccessary. There are bigger things in life to worry about than what words people use. If people want to mock or hurt people, they will, and will use the so call new phrase as the latest addition to the armoury.This is a reply to this message.
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Just choked on my tea - think it was shock!
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sorry i ruined your tea, didnt meant too, just pointing out what the terminology was. from recollection there was also a severly mentally retarded "band" for IQ below 60 or 50, I really cannot remember.
Sincere apologies if you find this upsetting, this was the terminology we used, and as I said, I really have no issue with it.This is a reply to this message.
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Dear Gentle Jack, I assure you it was nothing you said, it was the opening post that did for me! I should have quoted the post in question but I guess I was just too shocked.
Thank you for you gentlemanly apology, it was really nice of you.This is a reply to this message.
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How interesting, in your original post, you used the phrase I've been hearing most often here (I'm in the US). My impression is that even in the US "developmental disability" is overtaking "Mental Retardation" as correct terminology.
In the US, "learning disabilities" are classified as something completely different.
Thing is that the American parents I know who have kids with learning disabilities say that after a certain age (8??) their 'label' is changed from developmental to MR.
We had this debate at the start of my LD module surprisingly enough, and decided that (as a generalisation):
Learning difference/difficulty= specific learning issues such as dyslexia, dyspraxia etc. (although you can debate the term dyspraxia in itself).
Learning disability (LD)= the old definitions of IQ<x
Apparently people w/LD have said that they prefer the term LD also.
(learning difference only came into it as we were all puzzled as to what it meant).This is a reply to this message.
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Purely playing devil's advocate here:
"Mentally retarded" = retarded meaning held back. The person is held back because of a problem with the mind.
"Learning disability" = the person is disabled (i.e. prevented from doing something, in other words, held back) because of an inability to learn (i.e. develop the mind) in a 'normal' way.
So where's the difference?
Is it just that "retard" became a term of abuse, so everyone in the medical/education professions has to change their terminology to stop it being abused?This is a reply to this message.
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Is it just that "retard" became a term of abuse, so everyone in the medical/education professions has to change their terminology to stop it being abused?
To some extent although, personally, that seems fair enough to me. I prefer to use neutral terms which specify the impairment in question e.g. autism or Down's syndrome.This is a reply to this message.
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Is it just that "retard" became a term of abuse, so everyone in the medical/education professions has to change their terminology to stop it being abused?
To some extent although, personally, that seems fair enough to me. I prefer to use neutral terms which specify the impairment in question e.g. autism or Down's syndrome.
But isn't "Down's syndrome" only neutral because it's new?
At one time "Mongol" was a neutral medical term, too, then it got abused, so it got replaced.
Must we always be on the back foot, replacing terms to avoid offence, can't we re-assert the positive? That's not the same as 're-claiming' an abusive term in an ironic way, but just sticking with it, explaining what it really means, and ignoring or challenging its' misuse.This is a reply to this message.
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Language changes to reflect changes in society and in understanding. Why should the language of disability be any different? Should we freeze frame disability language to avoid accusations of change for the sake of it, whilst the rest of the language is changing around it? I think not.
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Also, a lot of people with learning disabilities don't have a defined 'syndrome' of any kind.
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I work with adults with learning disabilities, ranging from mild to profound. Many of these people would be seriously insulted by the term mentally retarded, and do indeed prefer learning disabled. Some would voice their unhappiness loud and clear, as they are entitled to do. If that is the term wish to be used, then that should be used. Their choice must be respected.
Personally we have an agreement going, that I won't insult them with the whole MR thing, they wont tell me I walk like a womble!!This is a reply to this message.
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I work with adults with learning disabilities, ranging from mild to profound. Many of these people would be seriously insulted by the term mentally retarded, and do indeed prefer learning disabled. Some would voice their unhappiness loud and clear, as they are entitled to do. If that is the term wish to be used, then that should be used. Their choice must be respected.
Personally we have an agreement going, that I won't insult them with the whole MR thing, they wont tell me I walk like a womble!!
I agree.
As someone with learning and other invisible disabilities,I find it bad to hear that learning disability is being seen as equal to mental retardation when the majority of learning disabilities are not based on lower IQ but a significant difference between the persons' IQ and their ability in various tasks.
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I completly agree with what you say about the difference between IQ and ability to perform tasks. The new staff at work often ask about the mental age of our service users. I find this term confusing and innacurate, as ability levels can differ widely within one person, and comparing a grown adult to a child strikes me as just as insulting as the retarded label. It can be hard to get across sometimes that although their ability to speak fluently for example may be fairly impaired, that is not necessarily a good indicator of how much they understand when spoken to. Some big important docs have seriously underestimated a person's ability to live their lives simply by thinking of that person as of a certain mental age.
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Your reply sounds typical of a psychologist. In spite of their specialty - or perhaps because of it, they are often happy to trample on people's feelings. PC is often rediculous, but surely the main thing is not to hurt people's feelings. I hope you will think about that!
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I'm not a psychologist bignurse, for from it!! I have worked within a company providing residential, community, and day care for adults with a learning disability for 7 years now. In addition to this I have myself a disability that affects many areas of my life, as well as a learning difficulty concerning numbers, so I get both sides of the fence so to speak.
I fail to see what it was in my reply that you consider trampling on peoples feelings, I have no intention to cause offence and my opinions are the result of discussion with both staff and service user within the company. Was it the mention of the term mental age? If I may quote directly from a service user with moderate learning disabilities here "I haven't got a mental age, I'm an adult not a child"
I stand by my previous statement that we should use the terminology that the people in question prefer to use.This is a reply to this message.
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Nickymouse:
According to the link under bignurse's post they were replying to Message 5 from GentleJack.
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