Developmental disability

“ The regulations which have been issued with regard to disability for children state that if a child's impairments are not those listed, eligibility may still be met if the impairments 'singly or in combination . ”

“ In order to achieve success in eugenics we must strive to encourage the parenthood of the worthy or fit, and to discourage the parenthood of the unworthy or unfit. The unfit are those, as previously explained, who, because of mental or physical disability, are unable to create fit or healthy children. ”

“ But to the woman herself, who must resume the functions of mother, homemaker, wife and general utility person, the disability may be enough to make life endlessly dreary and discouraging. And yet, she is perhaps only just below the physical level upon which she could live her life with joy and eagerness; and proper care when the baby came would have left her upon that level.
The effect of the mother’s impairment reaches far beyond her own invalidism, for such women are not as well able to rear and care for their children satisfactorily as are fresh, buoyant mothers. ”

“ The Secretary's claim that a functional analysis of child-disability claims is not feasible is unconvincing. The fact that a vocational analysis is inapplicable to children does not mean that a functional analysis cannot be applied to them. An inquiry into the impact of an impairment on the normal daily activities of a child of the claimant's age-speaking, walking, washing, dressing, feeding oneself, going to school, playing, etc. ”

“ It is the intent of the Committee that States follow this priority by providing services to handicapped children who, within each disability group, (including the multi-handicapped as a disability group) have the most severe handicaps. Priority must be given to multi-handicapped children who are the most severely disabled. ”

“ New opportunities have been created through the efforts of those with developmental disabilities and their family members, along with professionals and officials at all levels of government. Working together, they have brought about significant changes in the public perception of young people and adults with developmental disabilities, opening new doors to independent and productive lives. ”

“ While it is true that ill-health and premature ageing in working women are the result of many causes, yet where child-bearing still further injures health it is essential that she should consult her medical adviser on this point, for she not only needs treatment to restore her health, but also advice specially suitable to her own case, as to the best method to avoid conception for the time being, and such advice will vary according as the disability is temporary or permanent. ”

“ As a result, we have programs to educate new parents of babies with Down Syndrome, special education classes within mainstreamed programs in schools, vocational training for competitive employment in the work force, and preparation for young adults with Down Syndrome for independent living in the community. ”

“ The primary motivation for the inclusion of misperceptions of disabilities in the statutory definition was that "society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and diseases are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment." ”

“ For many of these people with developmental disabilities there is now the prospect of a brighter future and greater opportunity. Americans are becoming increasingly aware that such disabilities need not keep individuals from realizing their full potential in school, at work or at home, as members of their families and of their communities. ”

“ If there are medically determinable diseases or impairments that should be considered disabling because of comparable severity to those affecting adults, the children suffering from them should claim disability, make their case before the Secretary, and take the case to court if their claims are rejected. ”

“ After bringing into the world the healthiest infant her common sense has been able to secure, she should guard against any physical disability accruing to it that she can prevent. In all matters of health she should either make a great study of the subject herself, or employ trained aid to its accomplishment; but beyond this there are other things which, if she neglects them, the boy or girl could reproach her for afterwards and with reason. One is the fore-thought for beauty. ”

“ The implementing regulations define handicapped children as "being mentally retarded, hard of hearing, deaf, speech impaired, visually handicapped, seriously emotionally disturbed, orthopedically impaired, other health impaired, deaf-blind, multi-handicapped, or as having specific learning disabilities, who because of those impairments need special education and related services." ”

“ Considering the important part played by uncorrected physical defects in causing permanent physical disability among adults, do you think in the long run it is cheaper or more expensive for a community to spend money in protecting the health of school children? Discuss the particular needs of convalescent and of chronic patients. Explain the effect of activity upon recovery, and explain why it is desirable for invalids to have occupation. ”

“ Today, fortunately, we are making many options available for people with Down Syndrome, such as early intervention, mainstreaming, recreation, socialization, respite services, employment, and independent living programs. ”

“ National Down Syndrome Month affords all Americans an opportunity to take note of the progress science has made over the past two decades in understanding developmental disabilities, especially Down Syndrome. An accumulation of new research, a body of knowledge represented by thousands of published scientific papers, has meant fresh help for mentally handicapped people and the establishment of a strong information base for future efforts. ”

“ FROM what has been said in the foregoing pages, it is an irresistible inference that the greatest of all handicaps a child can have, short of being born hopelessly deficient, is to be born into a home where he will be exposed to mind-deadening or emotion-stressing influences—a home where he will receive neither adequate mental stimulus nor adequate moral training. ”

“ In addition, parents of babies with Down Syndrome are receiving the education and support they need to understand this condition and acquire new hope for the future of their children. We must work together to increase the awareness of the American public as a whole to the true nature of this condition and dispel the stubborn myths about the degree to which it is disabling. ”

“ There also are severely handicapped infants who require not only the love and support of their families but who also must have the help of many groups in their communities-doctors, hospitals, health departments, providers of health care, and others-if they are to thrive. ”

“ IV. SPECIAL ABILITIES AND DISABILITIES AS DETERMINANTS OF SCHOOL PROGRESS As before stated in these pages, no census has ever been taken of special aptitudes and defects, in the functions which we have been discussing, and which are important for progress 202through the elementary school. No one can tell whether any have been advanced on the basis of a special gift. No one can say how many children are retarded, because of a specialized disability, though we know from reports rendered, that some pupils become retarded in school status through special failure in one or two respects. ”

“ There is a wide variation in mental abilities, behavior, and physical development in individuals with Down syndrome. However, individuals with Down syndrome benefit from loving homes, early intervention, special education, mainstreaming, appropriate medical care, and positive public attitudes—all made possible through the efforts of researchers, service providers, physicians, teachers, and parent support groups. ”

“ Every child that is brought into the world should be given an opportunity to live. This is far from the case today. Children are so handicapped that they are stunted in body and blunted in mind, if they survive. ”

“ I invite all individuals, agencies, and organizations concerned with the problem of developmental disabilities to observe this month with appropriate observances and activities directed toward increasing public awareness of the needs and the potential of Americans with developmental disabilities. I urge all Americans to join me in according to our fellow citizens with such disabilities both encouragement and the opportunities they need to lead productive lives and to achieve their full potential. ”

“ In the end, the disability definition does not turn on personal choice. When significant limitations result from the impairment, the definition is met even if the difficulties are not insurmountable. For the statistical and other reasons we have cited, of course, the limitations on reproduction may be insurmountable here. Testimony from the respondent that her HIV infection controlled her decision not to have a child is unchallenged. ”

“ Every baby is carefully examined on entrance by a committee of learned anatomists and physiologists, and if they find it affected with any malformation, or deformity, or disease, which renders it likely that the child will not be 'viable'—i.e., capable of making its way in life—it is not reared, and thus society is spared a useless member, and a human being spared a wretched life. ”

“ Is it any wonder that the average only child grows up deficient in initiative and self-reliance? Is it any wonder that, under the stress of some sudden shock, he reacts badly, allowing himself to be overwhelmed [50] by it, even to the extent of perhaps becoming a neurasthenic wreck? In short, can it be doubted that the handicap under which he too often has to struggle painfully through life is not a handicap imposed by Nature but is solely of his parents' making? ”

“ The problems that come before the large educational associations of this and other countries, are problems dealing largely with the child, such as the treatment of backward children, treating of abnormal children, care of the blind, of the deaf, special treatment for incorrigibles, the feeble minded, and many other kinds of mental and physical defectives. ”

“ In the past decade, the United States has entered a new era of hope for its developmentally disabled citizens. This new age of enlightened understanding recognizes that developmentally disabled persons have a great potential for achieving and overcoming handicaps. Down's syndrome, a condition once thought to be without hope of positive change, is one of the best symbols of this changing attitude. ”

“ I have directed the Health and Human Services Department to make clear to every health care facility in the United States that the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects all handicapped persons against discrimination based on handicaps, including infants. ”

“ When the development of the child has gone far enough so that it can do its own breathing, feeding, and discharging of waste materials, it is expelled from the body of the mother in the process that we know as birth. This does not imply by any means that parental care and responsibility are at an end. Food, protection, and warmth must be provided. Education must be attended to, for the nervous system of the new-born infant is absolutely undeveloped. It has, through heredity, certain possibilities of achievement; their realization hinges upon the bringing to bear of worth-while influences. ”

“ From a biological point of view, then, it is to the interest of the race that the number of children who will be either defective themselves, or transmit anti-social defects to their offspring, should be as small as possible. ”

“ It shows that we are becoming as capable in the community-at-large of understanding the radical difference between those who are defective in mind and those who are merely handicapped by loss of some special sense or some physical power as loving and wise parents have been when either defective or handicapped children have called upon them for special care. ”

“ Unfortunately, some children are burdened with disabilities and chronic illnesses and need long-term healing and care. Their ability to thrive and to contribute to society depends on their receiving the kinds of treatment and health care that are available in this country as in few other places on earth. ”

“ I inquired if there were not many cases of children received at the establishments who were incapable of a subaqueous life, or who, from some inborn defect of constitution or congenital deformity, are incapable of turning out useful members of society. I was informed that such cases did undoubtedly occur, but as infants so afflicted were not worth the trouble of rearing, they were not reared. ”

“ Over the last decade, Americans have become more aware of the accomplishments and the potential of developmentally disabled people, particularly those with Down Syndrome, thanks to the efforts of concerned physicians, teachers, and parents' groups such as the National Down Syndrome Congress and the National Down Syndrome Society. ”

“ These inequalities of development may vary to any degree in different subjects. They always produce a want of equilibrium, and this want is the differentiating attribute of the defective child. But to draw a faithful picture we must add yet other traits. According to general opinion, mental deficiency is a disease, and although the idea of disease is very vague, we are inclined to fall in with this general opinion. ”

“ Where father and mother are both consumptive the chances are that the children will inherit physical weakness, which will result in the same disease, unless great pains are taken to give them a good physical education, and even then the probabilities are that they will find life a burden hardly worth living. ”

“ Just as in the case of physical illness, we need to know not merely that the patient is sick, but also why he is sick, what organs are involved, what course the illness will run, and what physical work the patient can safely undertake, so in the case of a retarded child, we need to know the exact degree of intellectual deficiency, what mental functions are chiefly concerned in the defect, whether the deficiency is due to innate endowment, to physical illness, or to faults of education, and what lines of mental activity the child will be able to pursue with reasonable hope of success. ”