[Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted

[Donovan Arnold]

Sue,
 
I agree that the person is first, and all other aspects about them are secondary to the person, such as a person is blind, not a blind person, or a person is autistic, not an autistic. 
 
I think it is unfortunate that society every ten years or so changes the names of things thinking that is the solution to the mistreatment of people. A word is only a pejorative because society makes it so by mistreating the individuals that are different and assigning those different aspects as being mostly negative. 
 
The next thing to happen, and already is, a protest of using the term "persons with disabilities", because it focuses on what a person cannot do, and limits them, as opposed to opening up opportunities to them and focusing on what they can do.
 
I like about 3/4 of the people with metal retardation, a far greater percentage then the general population without that distinction, because they are, frankly, better people. I associate it with something positive. Only because society doesn't, is why they want to change the name and pretend we are helping people, when in actuality, we are not. 
 
The majority of children with autism are also more intelligent, insightful, and usually are gifted at something when they get obsessed about a subject, concept or object. This is a positive thing, not a negative thing. The only thing negative about autism is that it is more difficult to get along with the social aspects of society which are usually nonsensical anyways. 
 
My point is, as long as society keeps soiling every term or condition, or genetics that make up who people are, we will just keep having to come up with new names to call people and then discarding them over and over again pretending that is making a difference in the value we place on people for their differences. We need to educate, celebrate and embrace diversity, not keep renaming it. 
 
Your Friend,
 
Donovan Arnold 


--- On Sat, 2/13/10, Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted
To: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanjarnold2008 at yahoo.com>, "Ron Force" <rforce2003 at yahoo.com>, "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 11:56 PM



 
Donovan, 
 
Sure,  and it may make sense medically.  Educationally we've decided it is pejorative for our purposes   One other practice we've been asked to use, because what we call a person does truly define them for others, is:  Refer to students in special education as "children with autism" rather than "autistic children."  The distinction is subtle, but important, I think.  
 
Sue




From: Donovan Arnold 
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:37 AM
To: Ron Force ; Moscow Vision 2020 ; Sue Hovey 
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted






Sue,
 
We agree on not lumping all spectrums of autism into one for the obvious reasons you listed.
 
While "retarded" is a pejorative that should not be used to define a person, the same logic and reasoning for not lumping all spectrums of autism together should also be applied to not lumping the term "mental retardation" with epilepsy, aspergers, cerebral palsy, or Alzheimer's disease .
 
 





Class 


IQ 



Profound mental retardation 


Below 20 



Severe mental retardation 


20–34 



Moderate mental retardation 


35–49 



Mild mental retardation 


50–69 



Borderline intellectual functioning 


70–80 

  
There are legitimate medical and educational reasons why "mental retardation" is separated from epilepsy and cerebral palsy, not to mention psychological self esteem issues. They are completely different in nature, diagnoses’, cause, treatment, needed assistance, and intellectual capacity. 
 
The purpose of a word is to communicate a specific message, not to be ambiguous and convey negative and misleading information. I think this move is to simple accommodate people that want to be politically correct and are too intellectually lazy to learn about different people and the type of challenges they face in life. 
 
Your Friend,
 
Donovan Arnold

--- On Thu, 2/11/10, Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted
To: "Ron Force" <rforce2003 at yahoo.com>, "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date: Thursday, February 11, 2010, 8:07 PM





interesting.  Over the past few years teachers have been getting some good information regarding the education of children diagnosed with Asperger's, which we do recognize is a mild form of autism, but the distinction has been important educationally because the the teaching strategies are markedly different for children with Asperger's than for those with classic "autism." 
 
The term "retarded" is an anachronism with no real educational value.  The term is not descriptive of specific disabilities, in fact the word means "to slow down" leading to an inference that the person was once  working at a greater intellectual level than currently.  It has been a number of years since I've seen it used at all in education circles.  
 
Sue H.   




From: Ron Force 
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 9:01 AM
To: Moscow Vision 2020 
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted



You'll have to change your vocabulary to communicate in the future:





Changes proposed in how psychiatrists diagnose
By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) – 13 hours ago


WASHINGTON — Don't say "mental retardation" — the new term is "intellectual disability." No more diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome — call it a mild version of autism instead. And while "behavioral addictions" will be new to doctors' dictionaries, "Internet addiction" didn't make the cut.
The American Psychiatric Association is proposing major changes Wednesday to its diagnostic bible, the manual that doctors, insurers and scientists use in deciding what's officially a mental disorder and what symptoms to treat. In a new twist, it is seeking feedback via the Internet from both psychiatrists and the general public about whether the changes will be helpful before finalizing them.
The manual suggests some new diagnoses. Gambling so far is the lone identified behavioral addiction, but in the new category of learning disabilities are problems with both reading and math. Also new is binge eating, distinct from bulimia because the binge eaters don't purge.
Sure to generate debate, the draft also proposes diagnosing people as being at high risk of developing some serious mental disorders — such as dementia or schizophrenia — based on early symptoms, even though there's no way to know who will worsen into full-blown illness. It's a category the psychiatrist group's own leaders say must be used with caution, as scientists don't yet have treatments to lower that risk but also don't want to miss people on the cusp of needing care.
Another change: The draft sets scales to estimate both adults and teens most at risk of suicide, stressing that suicide occurs with numerous mental illnesses, not just depression.
But overall the manual's biggest changes eliminate diagnoses that it contends are essentially subtypes of broader illnesses — and urge doctors to concentrate more on the severity of their patients' symptoms. Thus the draft sets "autism spectrum disorders" as the diagnosis that encompasses a full range of autistic brain conditions — from mild social impairment to more severe autism's lack of eye contact, repetitive behavior and poor communication — instead of differentiating between the terms autism, Asperger's or "pervasive developmental disorder" as doctors do today.
The psychiatric group expects that overarching change could actually lower the numbers of people thought to suffer from mental disorders.
"Is someone really a patient, or just meets some criteria like trouble sleeping?" APA President Dr. Alan Schatzberg, a Stanford University psychiatry professor, told The Associated Press. "It's really important for us as a field to try not to overdiagnose."
Psychiatry has been accused of overdiagnosis in recent years as prescriptions for antidepressants, stimulants and other medications have soared. So the update of this manual called the DSM-5 — the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition — has been anxiously awaited. It's the first update since 1994, and brain research during that time period has soared. That work is key to give scientists new insight into mental disorders with underlying causes that often are a mystery and that cannot be diagnosed with, say, a blood test or X-ray.
"The field is still trying to organize valid diagnostic categories. It's honest to re-look at what the science says and doesn't say periodically," said Ken Duckworth, medical director for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which was gearing up to evaluate the draft.
The draft manual, posted at http://www.DSM5.org, is up for public debate through April, and it's expected to be lively. Among the autism community especially, terminology is considered key to describing a set of poorly understood conditions. People with Asperger's syndrome, for instance, tend to function poorly socially but be high-achieving academically and verbally, while verbal problems are often a feature of other forms of autism.
"It's really important to recognize that diagnostic labels very much can be a part of one's identity," said Geri Dawson of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, which plans to take no stand on the autism revisions. "People will have an emotional reaction to this."
Liane Holliday Willey, an author of books about Asperger's who also has the condition, said in an e-mail that school autism services often are geared to help lower-functioning children.
"I cannot fathom how anyone could even imagine they are one and the same," she wrote. "If I had put my daughter who has a high IQ and solid verbal skills in the autism program, her self-esteem, intelligence and academic progress would have shut down."
Terminology also reflects cultural sensitivities. Most patient-advocacy groups already have adopted the term "intellectual disability" in place of "mental retardation." Just this month, the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, drew criticism from former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and others for using the word "retarded" to describe some activists whose tactics he questioned. He later apologized.
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 













From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2008 at yahoo.com>
To: Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>; Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
Sent: Tue, February 9, 2010 2:31:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted






People use the term "retarded" in a derogatory manner. I think that is wrong, and what this bill is about. However, "mental retardation" is a medical term which means something specific to people in the medical field. If you change that, it will alter their level of needed care.
 
Using the term "people with intellectual disabilities" doesn't tell me what I need to know to help that person. It doesn't communicate anything meaningful from medical staff to medical staff. Severe, moderate, or mild mental retardation tell me a great deal. I can use that term universally with a doctor in New Zeland, or a staff member in my own facility, and communicate a great deal of information about the kind of care they need instantly. 
 
This would be like eliminating grades K-5 and just using the term primary school not to offend K-5 graders. It would be confusing and frustrating to people in the education field. You would not where to put what teachers where and what kind of books or help the students needed, how to budget, or what lesson plans were needed. 
 
Trying to switch medical terms that are used universally for identifying the needs of persons in Idaho Statues could hurt the people they are trying to help by confusing federal and state agencies as to where resources, funding, and which kinds of medical staff need to go where. 
 
I think of instead of coming up with new words every ten years that mean the same thing to not offend people, we should not use words in a derogatory, improper, or negative manner. If we want to make up new words, lets make up words to label the people that make fun of people. 
 
And BTW, I don't think they should use African American to define people that happen to have black skin, because not all people with black skin are African Americans, as I had Jamaican point out me, who was neither African, nor an American. 
 
Your Friend,
 
Donovan Arnold


--- On Tue, 2/9/10, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted
To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 5:27 PM


Courtesy of today's (February 9, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

----------------------------------------------------------

Outdated language targeted
Bill would cut ‘idiot,’ ‘retarded’ from laws
Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review

BOISE – After Idaho hosted the Special Olympics World Winter Games last
year, state Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, said he was startled when reading
through Idaho statutes to see outmoded terminology like “mentally
retarded,” “mentally deficient” and even “lunatic” and “idiot.”

Hosting athletes from around the world with mental disabilities, Bock
said, “I think … made all of us a little more sensitive with respect to
some of the language we use.”

So the Boise attorney began working with state officials to search through
state laws and found lots of that kind of wording. A half-dozen meetings
followed with state Health and Welfare officials, the Idaho Council on
Developmental Disabilities, the courts, the state Department of Insurance
and more.

In the end, Bock came up with an 84-page bill to update the wording in
several sections of Idaho state law, from the probate code (which referred
to “a decedent, an infant, lunatic or insolvent”) to the death penalty
(which included a section headed, “Imposition of death penalty upon
mentally retarded person prohibited”).

As the bill took shape, a section about “Contracts of Idiots” became
“Contracts of Persons Without Understanding.” A clause about vocational
education programs that said “handicapped students” was switched to
“students with disabilities.”

When Bock presented the bill Monday to the Idaho Senate Judiciary and
Rules Committee, state Sen. Shirley McKague, R-Meridian, asked if it would
penalize people who use the outdated terms. Bock said no. “That’s not in
the bill,” he said... “It’s not about requiring people to speak in a certain
way. It’s about the language in the statute.”

Bock said the Special Olympics, which drew international attention to
Idaho and brought hundreds of Idahoans out as volunteers to help with the
games, opened his eyes about language referring to people with
disabilities.

“We shouldn’t be labeling them in a way that’s disrespectful,” he said.

State Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, noted that the long bill also,
in one instance, changes the term “Afro-American” to “African-American.”
Bock said that was simply a matter of updating a term that’s no longer in
use.

The bill also, in several instances, changes the word “handicapped” to
“impaired,” and removes the term “the mentally retarded” in favor of
“people with intellectual disabilities.” In all cases, Bock said, “the
goal was absolutely no change in the substance of the law.”

The Senate committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill. To become
law, it still needs to survive full committee hearings and votes in both
houses, plus receive the governor’s signature.

----------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown


=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet, 
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net/                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================







=======================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet, 
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
======================================================= 
-----Inline Attachment Follows-----


=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet, 
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----


=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet, 
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100214/971a3920/attachment-0001.html