Speaking of mild mental retardation: It‘s no box of chocolates, or is it?

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
J. David Smith, Professor, Department Chair (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: The meaning of the category and concept of mild mental retardation is explored through the words of fictional characters and the accounts of real people who have been injured and stigmatized by the label. Examples of the extremes to which people have gone to avoid or escape the term mental retardation are provided. The classification of mild retardation is presented as a fabrication with no coherence in the characteristics and needs of the people placed under its conceptual umbrella. A call for new terminology and, more important, new thinking about this misunderstood and nearly forgotten population of children and adults is issued.

Additional Information

Publication
Exceptionality: A Special Education Journal. 14, 191-204
Language: English
Date: 2006
Keywords
Mild mental retardation, Terminology

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