Which would you like other people to discribe your special needs child or chilren?

Question

Retarded or Delevopmentaly Handicapp; I get really angry and upset when someone refers to my child as retarfed or weird,just because she or he acts and speaks diffferently.

Answer 1

There is the legal word, Mentally Retarded, and when used by educators is NOT a put-down. It is written into law that way, and is used to communicate about a child's needs. It means that a child needs to practice something many times more than most kids to be able to do it well. The child must learn each skill in smaller steps, too. Knowing this helps the teachers and staff give the child the support he/she needs.

What is horribly wrong is when the word "retarded" is used as a put-down by people who don't know any better. If you feel that your child is being teased or put down in school because he/she needs more time and support to learn each skill, talk to the teacher(s) and/or principal about it.

Kids are often naturally cruel. We spend lots of time trying to guide them into accepting each other's differences. Kids are teased by each other for being too thin or too fat, for having an extra fair complexion or an extra dark one, for learning extremely quick ("nerd," "geek," etc.) or for learning slower than others.

Something you may want to do is encourage the teachers to emphasize the strengths identified by your child's IEP committee when dealing with the other children's perceptions of your child. What things does your child do relatively well? How can he/she show those skills in front of the other kids?

By modeling acceptance and approval of each and every child, teachers can help the children learn how to accept each other's differences.

Answer 2

well I come from two 'retarded' parents and have a 'special needs child' and I prefer none of those labels....I prefer mom, dad, Charlotte and if I'm describing a child who's name I do not know it's 'the little blonde girl' or something like that...it's been my experience that all of those labels only hurt why not just children my 'child' doesn't get any special attention she is loved/treated equally among her sisters...if I didn't tell you she had learning problems you would never know so by that standard I really can't say if my child were more obviously needy such as Down's Syndrone what I would want my child labeled as because someone w/o thinking before speaking would label her as any of your mentioned labels....I'll just stick with Charlotte

Answer 3

A child with special needs. Which I think describes all children. You are right to be upset, but remember some people just don't know any better and they aren't trying to be mean, they just don't know. My grandmother is a pituatry dwarf. She stands maybe 3 feet tall and whenever we go out people look at her and make comments. I used to get so mad and want to fight them,but I realized that they didn't know better and just move on.

Answer 4

I hate that lable, and even though I've been teaching special ed. for 24 years and know that the "legal" term is Mentally Retarded. I never use that verbage. I usually say they are developmentally handicapped, or even "differently-abled"...I adopted a severly handicapped little girl and I know what you feel like when people pull their children away and say things like "stay away from that little girl, there's something wrong with her", or people in restaurants asking for a different table because they got placed near us.... major GGRRR..

Answer 5

I dont have children with special needs, but i just call them children. you know the boy with the blonde hair....or whatever i dont usually explain they have a disability at all. If i do, i just say they have different need than the average kid.