Re:A History of Political Correctness
by smsm42 on Monday November 11, 2013 @04:05AM
(#6710686)
Isn't "developmentally delayed" lumping everybody who didn't hit the certain set of milestones into one huge, overbroad groups? For one, some of them may be "delayed" - i.e. they may catch up with these milestones later, but some, unfortunately, would never reach them, in which case "delayed" is plainly misleading. Is is a wrong definition or feel-good term that is incorrect in fact?
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Nope.
Edit: I guess I should elaborate. Developmental delay is an indicator of a problem. It's not meant to be a final diagnosis - where possible, a reason for the delay is sought out. 'Developmental delay', like 'mentally retarded' is a symptom - it's just in olden days it was left there; the root cause was rarely sought.
Yes, the term can be misleading, and I don't like it for that reason. But it's not 'feel-good' nor incorrect in fact. It's an accurate description of what is happening.