Using Person First Language

Working with children and college students with disabilities, I can not tell you how many times I hear people call individuals with a disability first by their disability then by who they are. For example: "down syndrome girl" or "autistic boy". Instead of putting the disability first when talking about an individual, it's important to put the person first. This is referred to as person first language. Instead of "down syndrome girl" you should say "girl who has down syndrome". Putting the person first shows respect for the person with a disability. It shows that you are recognizing who they are as a person first and then the disability they have second. The National Down Syndrome Society has a nice website that explains some preferred language Preferred Language Guide. Another interesting bit of information I learned from that guide was that Down syndrome is spelled with a lower case "s" (sorry for the misspellings in blog post #1). Down comes from the physician John Langdon Down who founded the syndrome, therefore the condition is known as "Down syndrome". Another common misconception that I learned from the Preferred Language Guide   is that the syndrome is a known as "Down's". "Down's" suggests there is a possession of the syndrome, but again going back to the condition being named after a person, this is incorrect. Hope you learned some fun new facts about our friends who have Down syndrome!

Have a good week!

Here is another interesting website about person first language: Kathie Snow's People First Language article