wintersfootsteps
Active Member
I want to kind of dispel a few things I've been reading in here… just from my point of view as a special ed teacher.
A "severe learning disability" is not the same as saying someone is "severely disabled." A learning disability means your IQ is within the normal range, just that there is a discrepancy between the capacity to learn and actual achievement. (Meaning: There's no reason they shouldn't be able to learn, but they still can't.)
Someone with a learning disability can/should appear normal, they generally have normal (or close to) self-help skills.They'd be able to take selfies, possibly learn to drive without much extra trouble… They could even go to the bar and have a beer. There's no law against that.
Shoot, I teach kids with IQs under 50-60 and they can take selfies too. I bet I could even teach a few of the higher functioning ones to drive! Not that I'll be doing that…
I'm definitely on the fence about this girl, though. If she only has a learning disability, that wouldn't effect her ability to know right from wrong… however just looking at her face… there could be something more going on.
I'll be interested to see if they pursue an official diagnosis and what that might be.
Thank you for the insight...
It is my firm belief that this girl *does* have a learning disability and I am also interested in the official diagnosis.
However, I do think that she knew she was pregnant because she told people of her due date when they asked. She went out of her way to hide the pregnancy and baby from her parents, so she had some idea of what having a baby meant. She didn't stop drinking when she was pregnant, either. This prompts me to wonder if her learning disability is an honest excuse for this behavior... maybe excuse is the wrong word... I'm just having trouble finding the right one...
The mental health professionals dealing with this case have a lot of influence on how this case turns out. I don't think the learning disability matters much here... but that is easy for me to say.