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AAP News Vol. 13 No. 4 April 1997, p. 29 © 1997 American Academy of Pediatrics
1 Fishkill, NY
I want to congratulate Dr. Cunningham for the clear expression of his views in the January issue of AAP News, as to a pediatrician's role with children with learning disabilities vs. retardation and autism. I strongly agree with his perspective. Part of the difficulty lies in our own present need to avoid politically incorrect speech so that we are unable to tell parents of an intellectually impaired child that the intrinsic ability is not present. Rather, we imply that with enough effort on someone else's part, for instance the educators, everything will be fine. The result of this perspective is burying us in false hope and false promises with useless efforts.
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