Friday, September 11, 2015

How To Properly Write About Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities

By Daphne Bowen


Words, written or spoken, can affect a person tremendously. Like all individuals with intellectual disabilities, can also be hurt and affected by the way we talk about them. Most of the time though, we are careless on how we address topics that are unfamiliar to us.

To clarify, intellectual disability is different from mental illness. Intellectual disability is to have poor scholarly capacity joined with impedance in adjusting to the ordinary social environment. Reasons may incorporate brain damage or hindered advancement as a youngster. Mental illness happens regularly amid pre-adulthood, generally during critical moments of a person's life. Persons with Mental illness even have excellent scholastic record and may lead a seemingly ordinary life.

Education is very vital when talking about people who are intellectually challenged. If it's truly the desire of your heart to uplift and protect the morale of those who fall within the bracket of this vulnerable group, there are so many ways that can be done. This write-up isn't just for journalists, but for those with access to to the social media as well or those with the ability to converse with others. Yes! Everyone. Here are some points worth noting if you want to be able to communicate with people with intellectual disabilities.

When talking or writing about them, avoid using the words: "retarded, mentally ill, abnormal, insane" or any other term that is synonymous to these. Once a person is labeled retarded, he is misconstrued to be a nuisance and a burden. This isn't the case as many people with intellectual disabilities, look after themselves and strive hard to be good in school.

Grown-ups and youngsters with scholarly incapacities are not the same. They are still in different wavelength and must be dealt with accordingly. At the point when a columnist is composing an article around a mentally challenged grown-up, he must utilize the full name of the individual, for example, John Doe rather than simply John.

A life of an intellectually challenge individual is usually seen or portrayed as overly dramatic, melancholic and full of suffering especially from the family's standpoint. This angle must be avoided because many families do not live this way. They support their challenged child and this child has a continuous positive relationship with their families and caretakers.

Only a small percentage of people in your community knows a family with an intellectually challenged person or even the person himself. Writers and social media users have the responsibility to enlighten people and portray these individuals participating in every facet of life - at home, at work, simply being part of the crowd. Placing them or associating them with hospitals does not help improving their image.

Keep away from the expressions "suffering from", "victim of" or "unfortunate" when making reviews about them or discussing them out in the open. Remember that intellectual disability is not an illness and the pessimistic undertone is just how individuals see them not how they see themselves.

All these pointer may be exceptionally restricting yet everybody is urged to speak and expound on mentally challenged individuals more. Presently, they have a tendency to reflect how society picks them to be - ignored. Keeping in mind the end goal to lift them up and to energize them more, it is ideal to speak and expound on them in a positive manner.




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