People First Language

Today was the first day of the new semester. My third official semester as a grad student in the Occupational Therapy program. I only had two of my three classes - occupational dysfunction and research. The dysfunction class is actually really interesting. We're doing half the class on pediatric dysfunction and the other half on adult dysfunction. Just some examples of the things we're going to be studying this semester include Down Syndrome, Autism, Muscular Dystrophy, MS, CP, etc. The research class is going to be intense since we already have an assignment due on Wednesday. But it seems to be a lot more busy work than anything else. As long as I don't have to sit through a neuro or anatomy intensive class again, I'm okay with that.

The other class that we were supposed to have today is a once a month seminar on our fieldwork sites. We have that class on Thursday since our clincals don't start until next week.

Tomorrow I have a LONG sensorimotor class but I think I'll enjoy that one a lot today. Thursdays are reserved for our fieldwork sites/clinicals and then Friday we have a long psychosocial class (mental health). If nothing else, the semeste will be interesting and we'll have lots to do.

Anyways today in my class we were talking about the importance of talking to and about a person like they're an actual person and not just about the condition they have. For instance, you shouldn't say "he's handicapped" you should instead say "he has a disability"; or "she's autistic" but "she has autism". Get the idea? It was kind of an easy first day but one quote that the professor gave us stuck with me.

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug" - Mark Twain

Just some food for thought.