Officially, Wednesday was Spread the Word to End the Word awareness day, dedicated to raising awareness about why the words “retard” and “retarded” are so hurtful—both to people who have intellectual disability, and to people who love them. But today is a good day to be thinking about it, too.
A lot of parents have spoken out on the topic, including Stephanie Graham. She’s mom to beautiful 3-year-old twins, Max and Addie. They were born premature and as a result, Addie has a hearing impairment and Max has cerebral palsy.
Stephanie is a teacher in high school, and created an awareness video that has been seen by all 3000 students in her school, and others around the district. It’s a very clear and powerful explanation of why the word is so demeaning. Please, take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7e1sSdXv2M
From my other blog:
20 reasons to respect my child with special needs
Quiz: Do you get why this word hurts so much?
If you ask people not to use the word “retard”–a Twitter experiment