I talked about some of the reasons that other words for disability are not preferred by the disability community in Stop Saying Special Needs and Stop Taking About the Mental Age of People With Disabilities. To sum it up here, none of the alternative terms for disability were actually coined by or endorsed by anyone […]
Stop Talking about the Mental Age of People with Disabilities
A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms. Sensei Ogui, Zen Shin Talks Lately I’ve been overhearing a lot of people talk about the “mental age” of their child with disabilities. “Liam is 9 but his mental age is 3.” “Kate is 20 but she’s functioning more […]
Stop Saying “Special Needs”
It’s Time to Get Off the Euphemism Treadmill People do not realise the extent to which their attitudes have been conditioned since early childhood by the power of words… Negative language inflicts the subconscious of most people from the time they first learn to speak. Prejudice is not merely imparted or superimposed. It is metabolised […]