Bryanseportfolio.weebly.com



Bryan LuckRacheal BjornEnglish 1010June 23, 2010Retard“Nice move retard,” I heard my brother yell at me as I tripped and fell. “Shut-up jerk,” I yelled back. In order to drive the point home exactly how retarded I was, my brother put his arm to his chest and let his hand fling about carelessly back and forth while talking out of one side of his mouth. In some sort of language that was hard to understand my brother said, “My name’s Bryan, I run like a retard.” Afterward, we would both laugh and act like retards.In today’s world it is common to call each other retard. I have never given much thought about what the word means, or how it affects others. It is one of those things where everyone is doing it, why shouldn’t I? In one day that all changed for me, the way I thought, felt about and understood the word retard; the day our son Daysen was born. In the months leading up to when he was born, my wife and I both had a feeling something was different with this pregnancy. Though every time we had an ultrasound, the doctor told us everything was fine and he was growing well, we could not dismiss the feeling that something was going to be different about this little boy. We couldn’t imagine how there could be anything wrong with him; his older brother had grown at the same rate, measurements, and even the same weight.Daysen was born at 5 in the morning of June 6, 2005, two weeks later than his expected due date. The birth was going smooth with no complications, but as soon as he was born, the feeling in the room changed. They immediately take him to an incubator in a corner of the room, and five people surrounded him, all whispering things I can’t hear. He is not crying, and that concerns me greatly. “Is everything all right?” I ask. “Everything is just fine.” The nurse says, trying to give a reassuring smile.Without a word from anyone, Daysen is rushed out of the room and taken to who knows where. The delivery doctor stays in the room and I keep asking if Daysen is ok, only to be told that he is having breathing problems. Laurel and I look at each other and fight back the tears that are close to spilling over.“Is he going to be ok? I haven’t even held him yet!” Laurel says. I do my best to comfort her, telling her everything will be all right. What seems like an eternity passes when finally a nurse comes in to our room and tells us that one of us can visit him in the nursery.I head to the nursery and am met by a nurse who asks if I am Daysen's dad. When I answered in the affirmative, she broke the news, and my whole world exploded.“We think your son has Down syndrome.” She then started to tell me all the reasons why they think he has Down syndrome. “His toes are too gapped, his ears are too low, he has some sort of heart issue, he has a simian crease in his hands, and he has low muscle tone.”She gave other reasons as well but I don’t hear a word of it. I only hear her say he will never walk, talk, or function in any capacity. I hold in my emotions until I get out of the nursery, as soon as I pass through the door leading back to our room I break down in tears. As I walk back to the hospital room, I try to get control of my emotions. As I open the door, fresh tears begin to flow.“They say he has Down Syndrome,” I stutter out in broken words.“She told me he will never walk, talk or function in any way.” Words cannot describe the range of emotions felt at that time. Our new born, beautiful baby boy was mentally retarded.Mental retardation: A term used when a person has certain limitations in mental functioning and in skills such as communicating, taking care of him or herself, and social skills. These limitations will cause a child to learn and develop more slowly than a typical child. Children with mental retardation may take longer to learn to speak, walk, and take care of their personal needs such as dressing or eating. They are likely to have trouble learning in school. They will learn, but it will take them longer. There may be some things they cannot learn. As many as 3 out of every 100 people have mental retardation. In fact, 1 out of every 10 children who need special education has some form of mental retardation.They bring Daysen back into the room in a rolling incubator, informed us that he will be taken by life flight to Primary Children's hospital. After being released from the hospital, we make our way to Primary Children’s. When we arrive we are educated on his prognosis. We did not know anything about Down syndrome. What causes it, whether it was passed on by genetics, and if we have more children would it be passed on to them. These are a few facts about Down syndrome we have learned.Causes of Down syndrome: Human cells normally contain 23 pairs of chromosomes. One chromosome in each pair comes from your father, the other from your mother. The cause of Down syndrome is one of three types of abnormal cell division involving chromosome 21. All three abnormalities result in extra genetic material from chromosome 21, which is responsible for the characteristic features and developmental problems of Down syndrome.As our oldest son was getting ready for kindergarten we received a call from our neighborhood school asking if he would be attending that year. My wife explains that Daysen has Down syndrome and we want them in the same school. To which the secretary replied “we have the ALPS program here, and the special needs kids make the smart kids dumb.”Two years later we were contacted by the same school asking if Daysen will be going there. My wife talked to the secretary, explaining that Daysen had Down syndrome and was told they don’t have cluster classes. “If he has special needs, he will never come here,” the secretary says.“You’re right he will never go there, take his name and my other sons name off your list and don’t call here again.” My wife was sad to know that a local school didn’t want our son there.When you hear the word retard you think of all the special needs children and adults that have crossed your path. Unfortunately, for most that picture is a joke. Retard is not used as a serious term. It is not generally considered a medical diagnosis. The most common use of retard seems to be used as a put down towards another individual. In the movie Tropic Thunder, a character is yelling at another one for making a mistake. He says, “everybody knows you never go full retard…you went full retard…never go full retard again.”Just because an individual has been diagnosed as a retard, I have learned that does not define who that person is. The general use of the word refers to a large group of individuals that are unique in the most amazing way. Having Daysen in our lives we have learned the true meaning of the word retard, and that is not a joke. It is not hand gestures, it is not some sort of language hard to understand. Retard is a diagnosis our son has. He is loved by his family and all the kids in the neighborhood. He is funny, loving, and one of the biggest joys in our family. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download