Music for Exceptional Children (Reflection on Ch. 16)

p. 404 "Children who are classified as mentally retarded (MR)..."

Okay, seriously. Are we using this word or not? This is something that really frustrates me, because I can't seem to get a concrete answer. I understand that this stems from the fact that there really isn't a concrete answer to the question "how do we refer to children who are __(insert chosen term here)__?" I do not mean to be offensive in any way - quite the contrary - I want to be as sensitive and kind as possible, but I just don't know what to say here. Frankly, I wonder if at least part of the reluctance to talk about special needs education is because many people aren't even sure how to do so without accidentally hurting feelings or being insensitive.

p. 409 "The term emotional or behavior disordered is increasingly used to apply to children who might have previously been labeled emotionally disturbed, socially maladjusted, or psychotic. Schizophrenic and autistic children and those with affective disorder and anxiety disorder are also included in this category. The behaviors may have either a biological or a psychological cause."

While reading this section, I kept thinking of specific people I have known and worked with. I think this is the area of exceptionality (as defined by the book) I have personally encountered most often, possibly because it encompasses such a wide range of situations. I struggle with this because I am personally affected and influenced by own experiences with several of my relatives who struggle with anxiety-withdrawal related disorders. I hope that I am able to take that experience and draw positive insight from it, rather than relate my future experiences to the frustration and anxiety I have experienced in the past. I think I owe it to my future students that this is something that I try to work on personally.

p. 417 "Children who are gifted (who show advanced, natural abilities, usually in the preschool years) or talented (who have a disposition toward something that they work hard to develop)..."

I had no idea that there was a difference between "gifted" and "talented." It makes complete sense that there would be, though, because it would be redundant to have two words to describe the same thing. I don't remember my schools having a "gifted and talented" program specifically, but that they offered different levels of instruction through specific classes (honors and AP levels), although that opens up and entirely different can of worms (around the idea of "tracking") as we happened to be discussing last week in Intro to Education...