[The following Op-Ed article was published on the Opinion Page, Metro 6, in the Monday, May 5, 1997 newspaper, The Orange County (CA) Register.]
There's Talent Where You'd Least Expect It
By HOWARD AND SYLVIA LENHOFF
THE ISSUE: We give up to easily on those whom we consider retarded. They can be helped to live rich and rewarding lives.
THE WRITERS: Howard Lenhoff is a professor meritus, and Sylvia Lenhoff, a retired administrator, at the University of California, Irvine. The Lenhoffs are the parents of a Williams syndrome child.
"I always thought that talent is a birth defect," said the late Dr. Jonas Salk to us immediately after he heard our mentally retarded daughter sing for a Christmas party at the Salk Institute.
With the general public, however, there is the perception that the retarded are capable only of work in the "Four F's": Food (washing dishes); Flowers (gardening and yard work); Folding (napkins in restaurants or sheets as chamber maids); and Filth (custodial work).
We believe that Dr. Salk was right. Depending upon the type and degree of the mental impairment, a good number of people labeled mentally retarded have a range of talents, some possibly even greater than a large number of people of normal intelligence. Such retarded people should be able to make a living through their craft and fill a much needed role in society if they receive training, help and encouragement.
This proposition is based upon our familiarity with a neurodevelopmental condition which our daughter has, Williams syndrome (WS). People have WS because, since conception, their cells are missing a group of specific genes from one of their chromosomes.
Hence, regardless of their parental or ethnic background, [people with Williams Syndrome], because they share this same "microdeletion," are born with a range of similar physical, behavioral, and cognitive impairments.
But researchers are now finding that [people with Williams Syndrome] also share a number of abilities. These abilities are remarkable considering the other cognitive and physical problems of people with WS.
It is these asymmetries in their cognitive abilities and behavior that make [people with Williams Syndrome] intriguing to scholars and the public, and to their families. First, although they have extreme difficulties with simple additions and subtractions, spacial relations, logical reasoning, and abstract ideas, they show a high level of language development for "retarded" individuals.
Second, Williams individuals are people oriented and "aim to please." They have an extremely warm and kind personality and show a great deal of empathy in understanding the feelings of others.
Finally, as a group, many show a great love, appreciation, and talent for music.
Hence, we no longer call them retarded or any of the politically correct names; instead we use the classifier "mentally asymmetric" because they have their peaks and valleys of cognitive abilities. In some areas they perform miserably, and in others, extremely well.
Mentally retarded is simply an inaccurate way to describe these people, and possibly many other populations currently thought to be impaired in all of their cognitive functions.
When [people with Williams Syndrome] show great musicality and sensitivity in their public performances, they quickly dispel the prejudice that retarded folks possess no talents. Some parents of Williams musicians believe that their children, with training and guidance, could also help dispel the assumption that cognitively impaired people can not make a substantial living at such a sophisticated craft as music.
To help achieve that broad goal, which may well alter society's propensity to stereotype "retarded" people, a group of Williams parents (associated with the Williams Syndrome Foundation) are now developing plans at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and at Belvoir Terrace Music Camp near Tanglewood in Massachusetts, to build academies of arts for cognitively impaired musicians.
Once trained as musicians and performers, [people with Williams Syndrome] hope to fill a much needed role in the health care system, a role for which their warmth, empathy, and musicality make them extremely well suited. They will serve as entertainers and comforters of the severely disabled, infirmed, aged, and terminally ill. Most professional musicians do not have the emotional stamina to undertake such a role.
For this very possible outcome to be realized, changes must occur in some basic attitudes toward the mentally asymmetric where we least expect to find strong misconceptions - among the professionals in the public bureaucracies dealing with the mentally asymmetric, and among the parents themselves.
Unfortunately, professionals employed by local and state agencies see from very early on so many cases of severe cognitive impairment, they take on the assumption that most cognitively impaired people are quite limited in their educational and work possibilities.
Similarly, parents, too familiar with what their handicapped child can not do, and, possibly to avoid disappointment, do not seek to have them succeed in such challenging areas as the study of music.
Until professionals and parents are convinced that mentally asymmetric people can contribute to society through crafts beyond the "Four F's," we will not be able to change the views of the general population.
We need local and state agencies, as well as parents and families, to make a concerted effort to explore the range of interests and abilities of cognitively impaired individuals, not just those with Williams syndrome.
Then if the parents give these children training and lessons, just as they do in providing an expensive college education for their normal children, their skills should broaden. Finally, the professionals must help introduce these able, trained individuals into the community, and give them a start in making a living through their proven skills.
Just to give the government professionals an incentive, think of it, the more mentally asymmetric people who become employed in more gainful fields, the more tax dollars will be saved and earned.