Additionally, when older couples want to adopt, they will have better success getting a child if they are willing to accept a “special needs” child.
Across the street from my house is a sort-of halfway house for people with Down Syndrome. I’m always struck by how young Down Syndrome people look, regardless of their age. I suppose part of it is their behavior… one lady across the street ‘gets the mail’ and she is VERY excited about her job every day, singing and laughing on her trek down the driveway, much as I was at the age of five, but she could be 30 or 40 for all I know, and she looks quite young, maybe 20.
Chris Burke still looks 15 to me, but he’s 40.
Because unawareness of one’s own handicaps is found quite often in conjunction with certain mental disabilities and injuries; it’s called anosognosia. It’s therefore understandable and perfectly reasonable to be curious as to whether those afflicted with mental retardation also exhibit anosognosia. IANAD, but it wouldn’t surprise me if people with certain types of mental retardation are unaware of their disability.
A friends family is heavily involved in work with mentally and physically handicapped people, at least in part due to some of the extended family members having various mental development issues. I have talked to a fair number of people who might be categorized as “retarded” at random family functions. It seems that most are fairly self aware, including awareness of whatever problems they may have. I wonder how much correlation between self awreness and “IQ” there is as I know very intelligent people who apparently not particularly self aware at all (not trying to be flip). For those who are aware of their own predicament it seemed like they dealt like most people do with their own shortcomings, you are not happy about it, but you deal.
An example that struck me was at a “retirement” (she has cancer and had to stop working due to that, so not really retirement in the normal sense) celebration for a long time family friend who had been working for poeple with disabilities for a long time (I remember having a crush on her as a kid, have been friends with my buddy since elementary school). One of those big reception hall/seminar rooms at a hotel had been rented out and it must have been like 300-400 people there. There were a couple of colleagues/friends who gave speaches but by far most of the speaches where people who she had worked to help. Judging by vocabulary (not how clear their speac hwas but word choice and usage), some seemed very mentally challenged, but all of them seemed pretty clear on why her advocacy was so important to their lives.
Regarding obesity, according to this link, one of the physical traits of Down’s is shorter arms and legs in proportion to the trunk, which might exaggerate the appearance of being fat in some people.
Perhaps another factor is that parents and caregivers, when raising a handicapped child, possibly tend to feel that things like straight teeth and a trim figure are not as important as accepting them as they are, and giving them as much education as possible. But keep in mind I’m really going out on a limb here; I have no idea if this belief exists or what impact it has.
Or it might have something to do with this: "Low muscle tone or hypotonia, is very common in children with Down syndrome. Their muscles feel floppy. Although the degree of hypotonia varies from child to child, it generally affects all muscles in the body. "
My sister still suffers from this, (she does not have Downs) and because of it, she has no ability to exercise (she also has no want to exercise). She has slowly been gaining weight, and now has quite the belly.
Oh, and I don’t believe my sister is aware that she is retarded. She has the brain capacity of a 4 y.o.
As said in the thread there are risks as people get older, but I think part of this is how young some people look and the willingness of the parents to care for them for a long time.
My uncle-in-law has Downs - a pretty severe case. He can’t speak outside of a few basic words (yes, no, cake, pee), his mobility is limited and he can’t learn past a 2 or 3 year old level. He was at home until the mother got too old to care for him. I think he was mid-40’s by the time he ended up in a home. The mother was late 60’s by that time and while in good health was slipping in metal abilities. She’d have the same conversation with you 4 times in the course of an evening. Were it not for that, she’d still be caring for him.
Outside of the gray hair he looks 20.
I can only offer anecdotal evidence. My brother Stephen is 31 and my parents are in their 70’s. If you were to guess Stephen’s age, you’d probably think that he was a very young teenager. He is quite thin (maybe 90 pounds and about 5’4") and his face never really matured. He does not have Down’s nor did my mother ever use illegal drugs or alcohol.
I’m pretty sure there’s a correlation between the mother’s age and the chance of retardation.
How do I know if I’m retarded?
An overwhelming hunger for BRAAAAAAINS.
Children with SLO condition may appear outwardly very normal. But they could have just one manifestation of physical nature. Ie syndactyl toes. The behavioural characteristics may be manifold and will alert parents to the condition at very early age.
I know this is an ancient thread but what exactly is the substance of that difference, specifically mental difference? Playing piano and doing geometry and becoming a college student are beyond the abilities of countless “average” children who are decidedly not considered mentally handicapped. Where does the deficiency lie?
Dunning-Kruger got you down?
Down Syndrome doesn’t automatically mean you have intellectual disability. ID is one possible (well, extremely probable) symptom in a huge raft of issues. The severity of the ID can also vary widely. Somebody with a mild ID can function and learn. It just takes more work, more patience, more of everything
A lot of it is simply the way you look out of your face. I walk with my head up, jaw out, lips in a neutral to friendly smile, my eyes scan left and right to take in my environment. I pay attention to the state of my grooming, and posture. I quickly address any mucous coming out of my nose or mouth, same with food. I lick my lips once in a while to keep them clean. All these things and more require a percentage of my constant attention. It takes mental work to self-monitor your appearance and the facade you are displaying publically.
If one is mentally handicapped, it would be foolish to assume that the disability doesn’t affect this capacity as well.
A doctor friend told me that during her residency (about 20 years ago) she learned that one of the signs of a possible mental deficit in an infant was “FLK Syndrome”–i.e., Funny Looking Kid. If the baby didn’t look quite right, they would check for other signs and symptoms of “retardation.”
No doubt other doctors on the board can weigh in on whether that’s a real thing, and in use beyond the the hospital where my friend was a resident. However, I am absolutely certain she told me this and that she and the other doctors believed in it as a preliminary indicator–diagnostic would be too strong a word.
Not a doctor, but a biologist: many of the developmental programs that shape brain development are part of the development of the head and face in general (and frequently other organs), so visible abnormalities of head or face development are often a signal that there might be something wrong in brain development as well.
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zombie thread
My wife is a labor and delivery nurse and I have heard her use the term FLK in the way you describe, so not isolated to that hospital. How widespread I have no way of knowing.
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I think we’ve talked about this before, but this thread doesn’t mention it. I’ve noticed that there is a subset of low-IQ people who are literally mouth-breathers. I worked with a woman for a while who could hold a job, but her IQ was noticeably lower than average. She walked around with her mouth half-open pretty much all the time. I’ve dealt with a few other people like that, too.