when was the term Down Syndrome introduced.

[misdee]

gueniue question, i was flicking through my late grandads medical book from the 50's and it had references to mongol children (totally un-pc in my views). so when did it change to DS? was it after they found out about the chromosone abnormalities? does anyone know?

also it had things about cretins as well. which confused me.

never look though 50's medical books, tho the photos of the hospital and equipment in it, was interesting.

Not sure about Down syndrome, but 'cretin' and 'moron' were used as technical terms for particular types of what we would now term learning difficulties, I guess. I think it was quite precisely defined according to IQ score.

'Mongol' I suppose must come from the days when people didn't know the aetiology of chromosome abnormalities -- I have a middle-aged 2nd cousin with Down's syndrome, and the older generation of the family used to use the term 'mongol' without any offence being intended or taken.

not sure about down syndrome... but wasn't spastic used for cerebral palsy until really quite recently?

it all came under the mental section of the book.

was very pleased by the pro breastfeeding line sin the book tho

spastic diaplegia is a form of cerebal palsy

History of Down syndrome
It is almost certain that there have always been people with Down syndrome. Children with Down syndrome are seen in pictures from 1505. However, the first person to recognise Down syndrome as an entity was Dr John Langdon Down (1828-1896) an English physician working in Surrey. The syndrome therefore bears his name.
Correct terminology
"Down syndrome" (rather than "Down's syndrome") is now the accepted form throughout the majority of English speaking countries worldwide. It is also known as "Trisomy 21" in various countries.

From downsed.org

Doesn't say when it came into common use though.

(When I was in my teens in the 60s "mongol" was still in common usage.)

but scope used to be the spastic society or something didn't it?
must be because people used it as a derogatory term i suppose... even though it is a medical term

your not that old jan, stop lying

yes it was the spastic socity, it chamged it name ecause of the way spastic is used i na derogertry manner.

I can remember from my childhood there being collecting boxes for 'The Spastics Society'.

I presume all these terms became unacceptable around the time that people began to take rights of minority groups (whether disabled or ethnic) more seriously. Maybe between the 70s and 80s?

I'm presuming that only very old, clueless or deliberately un-pc people would use any of these terms now unless they were deliberately intending to offend.

I wish, misdee

AFAIK Down's syndrome was 'discovered' in the mid-late 1800's but 'identified' in the v early 60's. 100 is considered the average IQ and I think that's what the terms cretin and moron come from, ie,less than the average IQ in varying degrees. Which does not mean DS people are in that 'ctegory'

from downs-syndrome.org.uk

My cousin was born over 30 years ago and the term mongol was used about her then and throughout her childhood.

It was only about 20 years ago that family members began to use the term Downs Syndrome, although I assume medical people had used it earlier.

I have a 1930s medical book which defines "moron" "cretin" "idiot" and another term which I can't remember, but which is now only used as a term of abuse.

How do lot type so fast ??

Frogs tbh I don't think a lot of these changes happened until the v early 90's - and in some ways not neccesarily for the better. pc talk has done some damage too

My younger brother was born in 1964 when my mother was 42, and she often said she was afraid he would be a mongol - it was what DS children were called then. It's only a label.

I was born in 1970 and DS kids were referred to as mongol when i was a child. looking at janh's chart- i'd have been 16 when they launched the campaign to make jo public aware of the ame ds.
The term 'mongol' was never used as an insult in my memory- I thought it was an abbreviation of the word 'mongoloid'-
i also remmebr the spastic society- that wasn't insulting either in my mind

One of my friends at infant school had DS. I'm pretty certain that he was never referred to as "mongol". He was described as having Downs. That was in the early 1980s.

Well it's weird; having grown up in the 50s/60s when the term "mongol" was the only one in use and then having been out of touch with the whole baby/young child thing for 20 years, I was never made aware that terminology had changed, just realised that DS was what we say now.

Spastic is similar - the nearest charity shop was Spastics Society until relatively recently, but of course is now Scope.

Who decided that the words were offensive?

Iused to work in an office dealing with children with SN - in the early/mid 80's - and chidren were desribed then as DS not mongol. Mongoloid was previously was a way of describing the 'look' rather than the condition

Don't know but I did have a woman tell me when they were looking at adopting a child - possibly in the 60's as their adopted child is around my age - they were given a lovely 'mongol' child to care for and had considered whether or not to adopt but felt they could not cope with the number of serious medical issues. She used the term mongol a number of times in the conversation - and in no way meant it to be derogatory BUT she just did not know any better - that was the term that had been used to describe this child.

Me - usually not lost for words - was totally gobsmacked to the point of even being unable to say that the term mongol is offensive and it would be more appropriate and I would appreciate it if she used the term Down syndrome - am sure I started a thread about it as I was soooo stunned.

I went to junior school in the 60s with a girl who was referred to as a spastic. She was completely accepted and included as much as she was physically able. I don't think she had any learning disability.

I think cretinism is to do with hypothyroid{pku test} and people with this untreated would develop learning difficulties.

My friend at secondary {early 80's} had a cousin with ds. She was referred to as a mongol by her family.

yes the book said, 'take your child to the GP who will be able to tell you if your child is a cretin or not'. it mentioned thyroid somewhere in there.

Yes, cretinism is the word that used to be used quite specifically for congenital hypothyroidism. It's not the same as PKU but they test for both at the same time with the heelprick test. Awful the way these terms were used, isn't it?