Finally! We have found a way to describe the mental disability side of Rett. Obviously, “mental retardation” doesn’t apply to Rett syndrome. Neither does “cognitive impairment” nor “learning disability”.
Yesterday when Grace was having an eye gaze training with Hector from Tobii, he said, “Obviously, eye gaze is more difficult for Grace since in addition to a physical disability, she also has a processing disability.” This very much lines up with Susan Norwell’s description of the most disabling thing about Rett syndrome being apraxia which prevents the girls from turning thoughts into meaningful actions as quickly as the rest of us do.
So there we have it, folks! When it comes to the mind side of things, Rett is a “processing disability”.