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Mental Retardation
12 min read
Also known as: intellectual disability · cognitive impairment · learning disability · developmental delay · intellectual developmental disorder · diminished cognitive capacity · mild intellectual limitation · developmental cognitive disorder
Your Body Is Speaking
A child learns more slowly. It takes in the world with different tools than most of those around it. Words that others absorb effortlessly require repetition. Connections that others grasp in a glance need to be explained with care. And yet — here is a complete human being, with their own heartbeat, their own joy, their own sadness, their own dignity.
Mental retardation — what medical terminology calls intellectual disability — has an organic basis in most cases. An extra chromosome, oxygen deprivation at birth, a metabolic disorder, a neurological particularity that becomes apparent in the early years. These are biological realities. They are not the result of wrong parenting, not the product of the parents' spiritual failings, not the punishment of a higher plan. They are what they are: a form in which a life enters the world.
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