OT Talk and the Language We Use
I am choosing to write my first blog post on the importance of "people/person-first language." Before I started this program, I was told by a practicing occupational therapist that I was shadowing to never say, "an autistic person." Instead, she told me to say, "a person with autism." She said that would get me good points in an interview or with faculty if I understood that you always say the person first, not the disease or disorder. I knew what she meant, but I didn't know there was a term, definition, and entire concept based around that one little phrase I would redirect myself to say. I also didn't put two and two together to realize that mindset and way of speaking referred to all other disabilities and/or disorders. For example, you would say "patient who has had a stroke," not "stroke patient." Anyway, with each day that passes in OT school, I realize more and more about the profession and what makes it so great. One ...