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The dangers of labeling a child.

The field of Special Education is advancing, and as it is advancing, recognition and intervention are available earlier and earlier. Learning disabilities are singled out at a Preschool age and often even earlier, in infancy. There is much more awareness of any behavior that does not fit the standard in that specific age group.

Once, children with learning disabilities were not always properly recognized or diagnosed. Often they were labeled lazy or dumb. If the disability was less severe, they went through school being lousy at certain classes and doing better in other areas.
Most of us have areas we are not perfect in. We all had that class we had to work harder to pass or the subject we hated. Nearly all of us have some form of a learning disability and we lived with it. We lived with our friends, some of whom might have been severely disabled (like the handsome football jock who was great at sports but pretty lousy at calculus)and we lived with it. We didn't just live with it. We learned to accept it. We learned that every person has their strengths and weaknesses. We learned that nobody is perfect. We learned to respect somebody who might be less talented than ourselves because there are better yardsticks for measuring people than just looks and academic achievement. We learned that it's okay to be our own person without being the best at something.
On a general scale, it is probably better if learning disabilities are not diagnosed at all. As a society, we would learn to accept and handle people's differences and quirks without making a big deal about them and just see every person as another interesting human being with his own foibles. We didn't always rationalize every strange person's behavior. We just reacted the best we could and went on with our own life. Nowadays when somebody behaves erratically we are afraid to even object sometimes because we are not a proffessional psychiatrist and do not have a BE in Special Education. Once, if somebody misbehaved, nobody wondered why they misbehaved, and what the best reaction would be, and if they need to be referred. They just stopped the behavior. There is a danger in a label: It complicates the lives of people that need to deal with the child or adult that is carrying the label. Labels are scary and most people don't quite know how to read them. They often substitute the label with "Back off and leave this to somebody else. Don't bother trying to deal with this person. He or she is ....."

Learn more about this author, Fay Winter.
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