Labeling or Disabling?

Posted by Ashley, Special Educator

Because we work closely with our families (which all educators should do, by the way!), we often hear the thoughts and concerns of our parents.  One very common concern I encounter has to do with labeling children.  Many families feel uncomfortable with having their child labeled with a diagnosis.  This raises countless questions.  Will this label follow my child throughout his life?  Will it prevent opportunities for him in the future?  Will he be judged or stigmatized?  Will the diagnosis cause more harm than good?  These are just a few of many concerns some of our parents face.


I'd really like to open up a discussion about this and hope that some of our parent readers will share their thoughts and experiences.  I would also like to share my personal feelings on one label in particular!   Before I get started, I want to acknowledge that I am not a parent of a child with special needs nor am I a parent at all.  I am sharing my feelings as a professional only and am very well aware that I cannot truly empathize with the experiences of our families.  Because of that, I hope some of our families will jump in and share their invaluable perspectives on this!

Here are my thoughts...

Although labels or diagnoses may be scary, they may also be extremely important.  Without some type of label, your family will not receive publicly funded intervention.  Diagnosis results in services.  Labels may be frightening, but having your child miss out on important help is much, much scarier.  Early and appropriate services can change lives!  If a diagnostic label is what it takes to create a brighter future for your child, then I think it's worth it.  I don't mean to sound insensitive here or to diminish the concerns that some parents may have--those concerns are valid.  What I am saying is that the good outweighs the bad.  Having a child miss out on crucial and life-changing services is nothing less than a tragedy.  If choosing between a label and a lack of services, I would choose the label!

With that being said, I do think that we need to be extremely careful about the types of labels we use and the way we use them.  A child should never be defined by his or her diagnosis.  A diagnosis may describe parts or characteristics of the child, but it does not describe the whole child.  For this reason, in the field of special education, we use person-first language.  For example, we will say, "a child with autism" as opposed to, "an autistic child".

While I think that there may be benefits to some diagnostic labels, there is one label in particular that I find deeply offensive.  If you are a professional in the field or the parent of a child with special needs, you have undoubtedly encountered the term "disability".  As a special educator, this word is part of my daily life and, honestly, I really wish it wasn't.  I have made a conscious effort to avoid this label and to erase it from my vocabulary.  Blame it on my ABA nature, but I can't help over analyzing...

Disability.  The prefix, "dis" is typically used to mean "a lack of" or "not"  For example, "disengaged" means "not engaged" much like "disinterest" means "a lack of interest".  So, what happens when we put this prefix in front of the word "ability?"  We end up with a word that roughly translates to "a lack of ability."  This is how we are describing our children.  Does anyone else have a problem with this?

I personally am not okay with describing a child as "not able!"  Sure, a child may not be currently demonstrating particular skills, but does that mean that he is not or will not be able to?  Why would we ever describe a child this way?  How can any good come of that?

Regardless of what a child is not currently doing, there are always plenty of things that the child is doing!  If we label children as "not able" we run the risk of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.  In other words, labeling a child as "disabled" may lead us to treat him in a particular way, which may then lead him to actually become "disabled".  Educators may unintentionally place limits on their students' potential--they may not expect as much or push as hard as they would for a child that was labeled as "able".  It also gives educators an excuse when their students are not making adequate progress.  It is much easier to blame a child's lack of progress on his "disability" rather than blaming it on your own ineffective teaching strategies.  This is dangerous!

In a day and age when political-correctness seems to change on a weekly basis, I'm  shocked that we are still using such an offensive term!  This is one label that I think is really unnecessary and potentially harmful.  While some labels may be important in helping children, other labels may accomplish the exact opposite.  I do not think that we need to fear labels in general, but I do think we need to choose them and use them carefully.  We must know the difference between labels that help and labels that hurt.

Thoughts?