I don't want to wake up, unless it is between the hours of 12am and 5am!
The lack of person first language to a parent of a child with different needs is often like listening to nails being dragged down a chalkboard. I first learned about person first language in my college special education classes. Person first language was described like this- The person is before the disability. Gabriel is a little man who has Down syndrome. That Down's boy is not Gabriel.
Many in society have not been taught person first language. You can hear or read the lack of knowledge about person first language almost daily. In fact the video of the kids on the news for Christine's Photography last week did not use person first language.
So, is person first language a necessity or bull? I know that Gabriel is a person who happens to have been born with Down syndrome.
He has thoughts, hopes, dreams, love, hate, and everything that people w/o Down have. He looks different but has anyone looked at me lately? Now, THAT is different but I expect people to treat me like a human being first ( OK, ugly, second!) HA!
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