I’ve been reading a thread on another site( I know, shame on me!) where people are stating, without any evidence, that people with this defect are prone to extreme temper tantrums, and have phenomenal strength. Is there any factual basis to these claims?
I’m not sure there’s really any factual basis for either assertion. While those afflicted with Down’s do tend to be developmentally stunted, I don’t believe that they are any more prone to temper tantrums than a child of a similar level of development would be. The strength thing though is an old wive’s tale from the days when this was more commonly known as Mongoloidism.
I don’t think that they ARE strong but that some of them may use strength inappropriately. And even that is such a broad brush as to be almost worthless any way.
If anything, people with Downs Syndrome tend to be muscularly under-developed. There is a reason for the Special Olympics.
True, but there are kids with other neurological disorders that other kids might mistake for Down’s Syndrome - and some of these kids are remarkably strong. I went to school for many years with one kid who had some sort of developmental disorder, and would throw phenomenally violent tantrums when one called him “William” instead of “Billy” (I’m not using his real name, of course). In high school, they actually had to lock down a wing of the building so that police could deal with one of these incidents. Scary stuff - rightly or wrongly, this experience made me a lot more skeptical about the virtues of integrating special-needs students with the general student population.
I’ve been hearing joking references to “retard strength” lately (don’t complain to me about using the term “retard”, I’m just reporting what I’ve heard).
My layman’s guess is that some of the developmentally disabled simply use more strength than necessary on occasion. When I was a young child, a very mentally disabled relative pulled my arm to make me come over to him, and he practically dislocated it. I don’t think he was stronger than average, he just didn’t know what level of strength to use.
Hmm Cartman’s experience would appear to belie that. Yeah South Park did an ep on the Special Olympics, and Cartman entered thinking it would be a cakewalk-wrong. Parker and Stone played that part of the ep. completely straight, tho I certainly welcome input from someone with more experience with the Special Olympics.
Um no…one of the symptoms of Down’s is hypotonia (low muscle tone)
People with this condition tend not to be as strong as a typical human.
Humans only use a small fraction of thier total strength in most everyday situations. Retarded people do not moderate their force levels as easily, and can hurt people if they are too rough. especially when they are emotional.
I had a sister with Downs and she was very meek, had no extra strength and although she never had the mental capacity, or the help they have for people with downs now, she was a very sweet person and was very easy to live with. She died at the age of 57. She did like the Special Olympics and was excited to enter them even though she was much older than a lot of her peers.
Monavis
South Park conflated the Special Olympics and the Paralympics. The former accepts people with mental disabilities while the latter accepts people with physical disabilities. Jimmy (not Timmy!), as far as I know, isn’t mentally disabled yet was shown competing in events, not to mention taking steroids.
ETA: Forgot to say that Paralympians train as seriously as non-disabled athletes. Special Olympians, not so much.
My nephew has it. I’ll add my voice to those saying they’re less strong, not more.
My brother would tell you that his son can be totally impossible to deal with. It isn’t really tantrums…he just decides he wants something and he has infinite patience in seeking it.