I must admit, I hesitated to write this blog. Experience has shown that some parents are extremely sensitive to the use of the term “mental retardation” when describing their children. I absolutely understand this. There can be very negative connotations with those two words, especially when neuro-typical kids use “retard” as a playground slur. I considered calling the blog “Cognitive Disabilities” or “Cognitive Delays,” but all the current literature I ran across (as recent as 2006) still use “mental retardation” (MR) as the diagnostic term to describe intellectual ability that is significantly below average. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of … Continue reading →