The American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities recently endorsed the use of the general term intellectual disabilities in place of the previous term mental retardation. Explain the rationale for this name change

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer:
One of the primary reasons given for making the change to intellectual disability was to respond to the perception of stigma associated with the term mental retardation and the preference of affected individuals for the new term. Issues of stigma are a continuing concern in classifying any individual with a disability. This is particularly true of individuals with intellectual impairments. The term mental retardation (and the commonly heard insult "retard") carries a strong deficit orientation that is not always justified.
With the new thinking on cognitive disabilities, namely that all persons have strengths and weaknesses, the search and advocacy for a less demeaning term picked up steam. Since 2000, organizations, schools, families, and advocates engaged in active discussions of alternative terminology for the disability that was generally being referred to as mental retardation. A consensus was building that the term mental retardation needed to be replaced.
In 2007 the primary organization for professionals serving this group of individuals formally changed its name from the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), signally the shift in terminology. AAIDD also now uses the term intellectual disability in their 2010 definitional manual. With the signing of Rosa's Law by President Obama in October 2010, the term intellectual disabilities will now replace mental retardation in most U.S. statutes.