The R-word: It's a hateful slur that's got to go

Use of the word “retard” is so pervasive it's said in the White House and even in our house. I remember when I first heard my pre-pubescent daughters and their friends—good, caring kids all—peppering their sentences with reference to how “retarded” certain people or things were. “Don't be a ‘tard,” rolled off one of their tongues and I felt like I'd been sucker-punched. “In the olden days, that's a word that was used to describe people...

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The strongest people 'know how to be weak'

"You know what – it’s easy to be brave. Just remain yourself in the face of adversity. I love simple people. The ones who don’t change at every detour on the road of life…Maybe this is exactly what binds me to these people who are affected by an intellectual disability. Their simplicity—it’s not something transitory; it is innate and natural. Their courage is not overinflated; rather, it is silent—and it falters. Because courage also sometimes...

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Therapeutic clowns stir unresponsive children

In the first study to measure the long-term physiological effect of therapeutic clowns on hospitalized children, Canadian researchers show that even a child in a vegetative state and those with profound disabilities respond to the red-nosed performers with changes in skin temperature, sweat level and heart and breathing rate. “Every child showed a physiological response to the clowns that they didn’t show when watching television, and this...

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A mixed bag

Hi all -- Ellen at To the Max has a contest where American readers can win a $50 CVS pharmacy gift card by sharing game and play activities that promote their child's development. Many of Ellen's followers have shared their tips in the comments section. Enjoying the small things is an exquisite blog where a mom of a new baby girl with Down syndrome recounts her experiences in words and stunning photography. A couple of weeks ago, this question was posted on the BLOOM blog in reference to a post about inappropriate conduct that occurred at a...

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Music serves to soothe the pain

No child likes needles, and coaxing kids to remain calm while receiving Botox injections to relax tight muscles caused by cerebral palsy was stressful for parents in Bloorview’s spasticity clinic. But an innovative program that combines music, visual arts and medicine is reducing children's anxiety, helping them find creative ways to cope, and cutting procedure times in half. Armed with a guitar and a variety of drums, rattles and art supplies,...

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Vaccine study discredited, parent fears remain

Last week the prestigious medical journal The Lancet retracted a controversial 1998 study that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. The paper had fueled parent fears about the vaccine, leading to a sharp drop in vaccination rates. The Lancet retraction came after a British medical panel found lead author Dr. Andrew Wakefield "dishonest" and "irresponsible" in his biased selection of patients. In one of numerous ethical...

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All are welcome here

Today we have a guest blog from Amy Julia Becker, mom to Penny (above) and William. Amy Julia is a writer and a student at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. At Thin Places she blogs about "theology, disability, children and parenting, education, and the intersection of grief and hope." Thank you Amy Julia! All are welcome here By Amy Julia Becker “Architecture is evangelism.” I heard it said in the context of church buildings....

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The child who never grew

When my son was just a baby and I was madly surfing the net for anything about child development, I came across this book title: The Child Who Never Grew.I didn’t know it then, but it was a seminal book about raising a child with mental retardation, published in 1950 by Nobel- and Pulitzer-prize winning author Pearl Buck at a time when intellectual disabilities were hidden. Buck writes about her daughter who never developed past the mental age...

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