I first want to respond to the issue of the term mental retardation. There is nothing inherently wrong with the term; the only reason it is no longer considered politically correct by some people is because it has been turned it into a pejorative or a put-down. But it is a proper diagnostic/ descriptive term with a clear and specific meaning; in California, where we have extensive services for people with developmental disabilities, the law defines developmental disabilities as “including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism…” On our IEPs, “mental retardation” is one of the criteria that determine eligibility for special education. It specifically means that a person’s IQ is below 75 (or 70, depending on the testing used.) It has more meaning than the vague politically correct, euphemistic terms that many people prefer. Some people say “mentally challenged” or “intellectually challenged,” but those terms as so vague as to be meaningless. I was certainly “mentally challenged” by the physics class I took in college, but I do not require the same sort of services as my younger sister, who has Down syndrome and an IQ in the 50s. And “developmentally delayed” implies that the person will eventually catch up; as a special education teacher, I have been at more than one IEP where the parents believed that meant their child was just behind his peers but would eventually catch up. It’s really kind of cruel to give false hope by our failure to communicate in clear language. Glaciergran, “mental disabilities,” the term you used, is often interpreted by people to mean “mentally ill.” I would rather have people understand that my sister has a low IQ rather than think she is mentally ill! Grizzly Adams, the questioner did not use the term “retards,” which is derogatory and offensive, and you seem to think that “learning disabilities” is synonymous with a low IQ, when in fact many people with learning disabilities have above-average intelligence. And Cindy H – you called the questioner an “idiot.” That’s pretty ironic, since “idiot,” “imbecile,” and “moron” are terms that were once used to refer to different degrees of “feeble-mindedness,” which is what people with low IQs used to be called in the early part of the 20th century! (Specifically, an idiot had an IQ of less than 25, an imbecile had an IQ of 25 – 50, and a moron had an IQ of 50 – 69.)

So to give an answer to the question that was asked, in the first half of the 20th century, there were not very many choices for a family whose child had a disability. There was no right to a free appropriate public education for “handicapped children” as they were then termed; that did not come about until 1975. There were very few opportunities for people with disabilities to get job training, and housing choices were limited essentially to institutions or living at home until the parents got too old. There was a lot of stigma attached to having a family member with a disability – people ignorantly thought that mental retardation was contagious, or was an indication of poor genes in the family (so siblings might be considered poor choices for marriage), or that the person with mental retardation was a social or sexual deviant and therefore a danger to society – the list goes on. Often people who were considered to be mentally retarded were sterilized against their will, so that they would be unable to “taint the gene pool.” (To put these attitudes into historical perspective, realize that until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was LEGAL to discriminate against people on the basis of race, color, or religion.) When my sister was born with Down syndrome in 1965, people – including doctors – referred to her as a “Mongolian idiot” and told my parents that she should be immediately placed in an institution. And that was long after the era you are asking about, so presumably society was far more enlightened by the 60s.

In the old institutions, conditions were often incredibly inhumane. Geraldo Rivera, back when he was actually a journalist, did a powerful documentary (in 1972) on an institution in New York called Willowbrook. Among the horrendous conditions he observed and recorded, residents were kept naked and hosed off when they soiled themselves.

Luckily for my sister, my parents brought her home from the hospital and treated her like they did us 4 older kids. Our family did find some infant-toddler programs and special preschool programs for kids with disabilities, which was very rare in that era. My sister can read well, uses a computer and sends email to her family, has a job, has friends and a boyfriend, and a happy life. Now there are services to help people with developmental disabilities from infancy through old age – everything from heath services, therapies of various sorts, support groups, special education, job training and placement, residential services, assistance with transportation, and most importantly, civil rights.

What is your question? This sounds like you want someone to do your homework or write your paper. There is no comparison between the 1930’s and now, or the 1940’s or the 1950’s for that matter. But I am just speaking from historical knowledge as I wasn’t around then!!

Plus your terminology is way out of date, haven’t heard mental disabilities referred to with that disgusting term for a long time…and I work in special ed.

No, chocolate does not cause mental retardation, but you should be careful how much you each because the caffine in the chocolate can have negative effects on you and baby.

visit www.omr.state.ny.us and read up!

Rather than living in institutions with flith and no help, people now have options to live in small settings and are integrated into the community into various jobs. To name a few.

I worked a special needs assistant for 5 years and even reading the words “mental retardation” makes me heave. Its very ignorant and insensitive!!! Its just not PC

Why don’t you go to the library!!! Get up to date, you sound like some young idiot doing an assignment you don’t really have an interest in. I have 2 “special needs” kids and they aren’t retarded!

im sorry but calling them retards is not correct and if i did have learning disability’s i would find that highly offensive!

lol try until 2013