Words....

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world. - Buddha

Two words, two terrifying words that change both everything and nothing at once. Intellectual Disability.

"Intellectual Disability" is the term used in Australia to describe individuals who have impaired cognitive functioning manifesting before 18 years of age . The same condition is described as "learning disability" in the United Kingdom and "mental retardation" in the United States.

Intellectual Disability can range from mild to profound in severity, and like Autism itself, there is no cure. In Australia, roughly 3% of the general population suffer from some form of Intellectual Disability. In the case of Autism (Kanner's or Classic) , approximately 70% of Autistic individuals have an Intellectual Disability. The remaining 30% usually have some form of Learning Disability. In Australia learning disability and Intellectual Disability are two unique terms and should not be confused. An Intellectual Disability is more severe than an learning disability and is much more difficult to overcome.

But can someone with an Intellectual Disability still learn? In most cases yes. More than half the people in Australia with an Intellectual Disability are classified as 'Mild', and even though learning may take longer, take more explanation and may need added props such as visuals, they can still learn.

Our experience with Alex is it can take a while for information to be learned, but once he has truly learnt it, he tends to retain it. For example it took us approximately 6 months to teach him to recognise the full alphabet, now he can point out and recognise any letter and is starting to have some word recognition. We have been working on numbers for nearly a year now and he can recognise more than 20 numbers and can count to 10 with a bit of help and encouragement. Alex has bigger trouble with more abstract concepts though, for example, he only learnt 3 months ago the correct response to "What's your name?" is "Name is Alex".

We have a lot of hope for Alex and Alex's future but for now we have our daily struggles of aiding him to get dressed and undressed, bathing him, brushing his teeth, changing his nappy and so much more. The daily grind for us as parents to try and not only teach him information children 1 or 2 years his junior know, but to teach him life skills and subtleties of social interaction does become quite a labor. But it's a labor of love for one very special little man, who I believe has all the potential in the world.

[There will be no blog post on Monday 18th April, due to the fact we're overseas. The next post will be Monday 25th April.]