And now, going back off topic...
Many years ago, I worked at what was then called a state hospital where people who were then called mentally retarded resided. You know, an "institution". It was later renamed a "developmental center", or something like that, and the people living there became developmentally disabled, not mentally retarded.
Part of my job involved reviewed medical records, sometimes from many years previously. Back on those days, terms we would now consider very offensive, in fact offensive even by the time I saw those records, were not only acceptable, they were routinely used by psychologists and psychiatrists as appropriate labels for people whose I.Q.'s fell within certain parameters. These were diagnostic terms from, let's say, the 1940's and maybe the 1950's, it's hard for me to remember the exact years now, but today the only time you would hear these words would be as schoolyard insults one child would hurl at another. Yet they were so acceptable at one time that they were actual diagnoses.
Times change, people change, we evolve. To me, retarded can be offensive if you use it as an insult when you don't agree with someone or in your opinion they aren't catching on fast enough, but the same word can be an appropriate descriptive term for someone who has a very low I.Q. and not meant as pejorative at all. However, I also understand that someone dealing with the challenges of a child with any kind of disability might be sensitive, esp when you and your child have to contend with some of what society dishes out.
I also understand that retarded and autistic are two different things, and having people assume your child is one thing when in fact he/she is another must get old too.
