Intelectual disability

“ The barriers facing the handicapped are not so much their own disabilities, but the attitudes of the non-handicapped toward their disabilities.
Those of us who are not handicapped think of what we could not do if we lost an arm or a leg, lost our sight or our voice, or were disabled in some other way. We often forget that the handicapped are thinking of what they can do.
We must learn to think like them-positively ! We must look not at what they cannot do, but at what they can do. We must look beyond the disability to the positive ability. ”

“ In light of this clinical definition of mental retardation, I cannot agree that the undeniable fact that mentally retarded persons have "diverse capacities and life experiences," ante, at 338, is of significance to the Eighth Amendment proportionality analysis we must conduct in this case. "Every individual who has mental retardation"-irrespective of his or her precise capacities or experiences-has "a substantial disability in cognitive ability and adaptive behavior." ”

“ Those who read them will never know whether it's because you never learned how to write on a computer, or if it is because you have difficulties in controlling your movements. You alone decide if others are to know about your personal disability. ”

“ This year, in addition to rededicating ourselves to breaking down employment barriers, we will highlight the achievements of people with disabilities in areas such as journalism, entertainment, and the arts. People like journalist John Hockenberry prove that a wheelchair need not be an obstacle to traveling the world to report breaking news. Artists like blind sculptor Michael Naranjo and deaf painter Alex Wilhite illustrate that having a disability can be the vehicle for advancing the arts in novel ways. ”

“ There are certain simple regulations of health that are of vital importance to the life success of every one and the parent should attend to their becoming habits while the child is small.
Mental efficiency and accuracy are quickly influenced by bodily conditions. Poor health or physical inability are never accompanied with 100% mental efficiency. You may at once think of some examples of men of high mental caliber who were deficient and handicapped by physical disability. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Illiteracy and physical disability! Weakness along these lines strikes at the very roots of national life and of individual well-being. And if, as a nation and as individuals, we are ever going to enter into our inheritance, these defects must be remedied. But before trying to discuss remedies, it will be well to locate responsibility. Are our basic educational principles unsound, or merely our educational practises unsatisfactory? Are the educational leaders of the country all wrong in theory? ”

“ Seeing the mischief which the system of disabilities is accomplishing, is it not time that there should be at least an end of it? Or is there any good it can possibly do to make up for the harm it has already wrought and is still working? ”

“ One of these reasons is that a theory, formulated to take care of the neural basis of specialized disabilities, must take care of specialized gifts, as well. Cases where a generally stupid child is innately gifted with special ability to master the mechanics of reading, for example, are no doubt as frequent as cases where a generally capable child learns them with difficulty. The theory of specialized lesions or other faults of structure might cover disabilities, but would it cover special talents as well? ”

“ The principle that all mental deficients need not show the same low degree of intellectual ability is clearly recognized in perhaps the most important legal enactment on deficiency which has been passed in recent years, the British Mental Deficiency Act of 1913. ”

“ It would be wrong to conclude from this that a case of amputation at the wrist should be put to sewing.
It must never be forgotten that intelligence and will are factors of the first importance, so that however little intellectual capacity the disabled man may have, he is bound to profit by his passage through the school of re-education in learning to read and write if he is illiterate—this is more frequent than is usually believed—or to improve his knowledge if he has already had some instruction. It is, in fact, by brain work that many learn to replace their physical defect. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The question what degree of natural intelligence he shall be endowed with, in comparison with other children, is determined, not by himself, but by his Creator, and depends, probably, upon conditions of organization in his cerebral system as much beyond his control as any thing abnormal in the features of his face, or blindness, or deafness, or any other physical disadvantage. The child who shows any indications of inferiority to others in any of these respects should be the object of his parent's or his teacher's special tenderness and care. ”

“ 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? ”

“ And when we add to educational limitations, physical disabilities, blindness, deformity, ill-health, hunger and cold, we may feel shame as we contemplate the fulness of modern opportunity and the helps and incentives to study and self-development which are so lavishly provided for our use and inspiration, and of which we make so little use. ”

“ PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS CHAPTER II. THE FUNCTIONS OF A SCALE IN DIAGNOSIS A. The Meaning of Intellectual Deficiency. Whatever form the definition of feeble-mindedness may take, in this country at least [3] the concept has become quite firmly established as describing the condition of those who require social guardianship, because, with training, they do not develop enough mentally to live an independent life in society. The feeble-minded are socially deficient because of a failure to develop mentally. ”

“ I called to mind the theory that an innate physical deficiency is seldom without its moral counterpart, and I wondered how far this would apply to the deaf-mute at my side, who was ill-grown, wizened, and puny into the bargain. ”

“ And when we think of the long life of darkness of the blind, the limited possibilities of the child to be educated, the narrow lines in which he may hope to be trained, the fields of usefulness from which he will be cut off by his blindness, his dependence on others for things he should otherwise do for himself, the financial loss to the community for his maintenance when he might, under happier conditions, not only have been self-supporting, but possibly independent—the pity of it all comes with added emphasis. ”

“ While you may never be able to act directly on society to any great purpose, in consequence of mental or physical disabilities, you may, by instruction and guidance, prepare some other mind for useful work, which, but for your agency, might have wasted its powers in ignorance or crime. ”

“ According to its article 1, "persons with disabilities" include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. ”

“ Does the Mentally Defective suffer from any Definite Illness?—If the illness such as we have referred to affects those parts of the cerebral cortex which govern the muscles of a limb, one will find, in addition to the mental condition, paralysis with atrophy and contracture. But in addition to such very marked cases, there exist others in which sensory or motor affections, although slight, may hinder the progress of education.
It goes without saying that if a child does not profit from the school work, an examination of his sight and hearing should be made as a matter of course. ”

“ It is only necessary to add that good authorities estimate that there are over 1,000,000 serious accidents in the United States every year, in order to see that disabilities resulting from accident are prolific as causes of poverty, especially in our large industrial centers. The physical and mental defects which manifest themselves in the defective classes proper, such as the feeble-minded, the insane, the epileptics, the deaf-mutes, and the blind, do not need to be dwelt upon as causes of dependence. ”

“ The group studies confirm our suggestion that a borderline of X or below will bring in for expert consideration nearly all adults who are feeble-minded from a lack of intellectual ability, while testing IX is a fairly clear indication of such serious deficiency as to justify isolation. ”

“ When the general instinctive origin of intellectual deficiency is considered along with the incurability of the condition, we seem to be theoretically justified in assuming that the variation will be slight from one year of life to the next. ”

“ In this selection and education of mentally defective children, three positions of Billet and Simon are worthy of consideration. In the first place, it is contended that a physical examination alone can never allow us to dispense with a direct examination of the intelligence, and that "anthropometry, stigmata, and physical appearance must take a second place as means of discovering in school the feeble-minded and the ill-balanced." Again, "mental deficiency and want of balance are peculiar mental conditions which it is often impossible to connect with definite pathological changes." ”

“ Today, individuals with disabilities are better able to develop meaningful skills, engage in productive work, and participate fully in society. Yet, our work is not finished. The millions of Americans with disabilities continue to face both physical barriers and false perceptions. ”

“ Under the regulations applying to children, a person under 18 will be considered disabled if suffering from a Part A impairment listed for adults or its equivalent, as long as the disease's processes have a similar effect on adults and younger persons. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the diagnosis of conative cases could be determined objectively, it is possible that most forms of social unfitness would be found highly correlated with intellectual deficiency. On the other hand, when the diagnosis of unfitness for school or social life depends merely upon the opinion of experts or teachers, the inaccuracy of the diagnosis may show a wide discrepancy between the so-called conative and intellectual types of deficiency. ”

“ Then, again, some people who are neither mentally nor morally degenerate, are born with physical handicaps or acquire these handicaps early in life; such, for instance, are the deaf-mutes, the blind, and the crippled. They are the ones whom we most commonly meet on the public streets begging or selling trinkets, or playing some sort of instrument as an excuse for what is really begging. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The only way in which one can find out whether a school for bad cases of mental deficiency is good for anything, is to find out the mental condition of those who leave. How many defective subjects are there who, after having been treated at the Salpêtrière or at Bicêtre, are able to gain their own livelihood? ”