name MR Forum

The name of this forum should be changed. In my country (not the UK), to call someone mentally retarded is an insult and is confined to schoolyard bullies these days. Call it intellectual disability - that's what the Special Olympics calls it. I work with young people with Downs syndrome and if I referred to one of them as "mentally retarded" the very least I'd get is a firm wrap on the knuckles and rightly so. Also I agree re learning disability. In my country learning disability also means dyslexia etc. Please change the name of this forum to intellectual disability.

Mental retardation has been renamed intellectual disability in DSM5

i have mild intellectual disability [irritatingly it states 'mental retardation' in my records] and i really hate the name 'retardation' as a description for my disability,we are not 'mentally slow'-lots of my relatives/friends with intellectual disability are intellectually disabled to varying degrees and they all have fast thoughts,its information processing and how we use information thats the problem,my uncle who has profound intellectual disability has the fastest sense of humour ive ever known.
i refer to intellectual disability as being like a single computer processor and people without our disability have a quad core processor,neither are bad as such but a quad core processor can learn more and process more.

i personally think this board should be changed to 'intellectual disability' to keep up with how people with the condition feel as well as the DSM.