what might this girl have?

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there is a girl at my work who, let's just say, is given menial tasks as her employment. she has some sort of disorder that i can't quite put my finger on, and of course everyone in the department categorizes her as "ret*d". they treat her unkindly, scapegoat her, condescend to her even though she is in her late 30's, and generally view her as a subhuman or non-person. i know she doesn't have down syndrome, as she doesn't display the classic physical traits. yet i'm also quite positive it isn't autism spectrum either, as she is very social and talkative, makes eye contact, is very loud, lacks special interests etc.
the predominant characteristics are: a profound speech impediment with the inability to pronounce her r's, loud, squealy voice, short, waddling stature and very bottom-heavy, bad manners (gross table habits, face picking, tmi type talk), prone to depression and glumness (which can be attributed to workplace treatment, surely), quite dimwitted and simple, childlike spelling and writing. a tendency to glom onto anyone who will pretend to treat her nice or speak to her. i'm not being judgmental, just stating plain observations. i'm just curious as to what she may have becasue i get sick of people referring to her as 'ret*d'. i've even heard co-workers say they wanted to get her off to the side at the company christmas party, and beat her up. at first i thought perhaps cerebral palsy. like i said, facially, she looks non-downs. she does have a rather down-turned mouth. anyone have a clue?

Maybe a low IQ (possibly just above mental retardation or MR that's not Downs)? People with Cerebral Palsy can have any intelligence level (the more severely their muscles are affected the harder it is to determine true intelligence ). I'd guess being bottom heavy is genetics & waddling is lack of coordination... you'd have to get a doctor's opinion though to be sure.

There's no knowing. You're probably curious--I would be, too--but if she doesn't have a communication disorder that's hiding abilities that aren't obvious, then she could simply be one of the many with MR of "unknown origin". I say that because if she's "been assigned" to a job of a menial nature, then chances are the MRDD people have something to do with it (or their equivalent; in my area the Department of MRDD are the people who put developmentally disabled people into supported employment, mostly autism and mental retardation). And you say she's not autistic; so she's probably affected by some other kind of cognitive disability. Odds are, if she's developmentally delayed, there's no specific cause for it, because that's the case most of the time, especially with mild/moderate as she would likely be categorized.

That would be my guess. Emphasis on "guess". There could be other things. CP isn't impossible. For that matter, she could have some combination of labels that describe her differences.

I always want to know what makes another person odd; but I am always afraid to ask because sometimes people are tired of talking about it, and sometimes people are ashamed of it (for no good reason, but still ashamed). I've studied that kind of stuff for a while, and it'd be fascinating to talk to somebody who experiences it in real life; but in today's world, "ret*d" is an insult. I've only gotten to talk to people with autism and CP about their experiences. Other stuff... not yet.

It's infuriating that your co-workers think they've got the right to mistreat her. They don't, and her IQ has nothing to do with it. The way they apparently think they are justified in treating people who are "ret*d" is no way to treat any human being. She's putting in a day's work just like they are. They don't have to hang out with her if they think she's annoying (and yeah, she probably is annoying), but they are totally stepping over the line when they talk about beating her up, or treat her like she's sub-human.

Have you considered putting in a report about your co-workers? This kind of thing is absolutely unacceptable, and most workplaces have a way to report harassment confidentially. If they are seriously considering beating her up--who knows; they may or may not be serious and I'm assuming you're not too great at telling whether they are--then you may save her from serious injury if you speak up. Like I said, most places, you don't have to identify yourself to report something like this going on. I'm not sure how you'd go about it, but the employees where you work have probably been briefed on ways to report sexual harassment, and disability-related harassment should be a similar procedure.

the boss himself has sat in his office within earshot of them mocking her speaking pattern. he's no better than them. they're all supremely mean-spirited, uneducated, middle-aged stoner types of questionable iq's themselves, proudly ignorant and insular. they've practically driven this girl to suicide attempts. there's a lot of horrible injustices that go on here which go ignored by middle-management and the invisible higher-ups. no one recognizes it when it happens. plus, this is the midwest,, where people turn a blind eye and keep mum in order to "be nice", and avoid confrontation. no one wants to be a whistleblower, because that's a "bad thing" here. it's sickening.

sublicious.. that's terrible. are there whistle blower protections or procedures at your work place that ensure anonymity?

I doubt she has cerebral palsy - CP is a physical disability, not an intellectual one.

As others have said it sounds like a developmental issue - would you say she is child like?

There has to be someone else you can go to other than the boss. After all, there has to be some recourse if the boss is doing the harassing, right?

Sounds like she could have "Turner's Syndrome" which results from an extra chromosome...and it causes mental retardation.
Look it up on Wikipedia, if you want to learn more.

No, it's not from an extra chromosome. Turner's is from one less chromosome. They're missing an X. They have XO instead of XX like the typical female, or XXX like the Down's Syndrome Female.

not turner.

Last edited by subliculous on 13 Feb 2010, 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Maybe you could tell the proper authorities about this situation.
Even if they are not serious about beating her up it is worrying that the thought entered their minds.

turner's syndrome does not cause mental retardation

in fact there are some simmillarys to the defecits of one with turners and those with asperger's

those with turner's tend to have learning disabilitys (not intellicual disabilities) and the most common one for them to have is Non-verbal learning disorder which shares charecteristics with autism

Down's is trisomy 21, not a sex chromosome trisomy; and it can be found in both boys and girls. XXX is just trisomy X, and doesn't have a huge association with cognitive disability, just a higher rate than the general population, and a tendency to things like learning disabilities; but it's possible to have four or even five X chromosomes, though that's pretty rare, and in those cases it does tend to cause problems. Apparently it's relatively safe to have duplicate X or Y chromosomes, maybe because the X and Y were meant to be in different numbers in different people to begin with (that is, different numbers in males and females). The only full trisomies that usually survive pregnancy are X, Y, and 21 (Down's). There are other full trisomy cases, but they're rarer because they usually involve live-birth rates of five percent or less and lifespans of less than two years, because they cause a lot of serious health problems.

Of course it isn't always as simple as chromosomes just being too many or too few, because you can have things like translocations (one bit of one chromosome picked up and moved to another chromosome) or bits of a chromosome missing, or duplicated, or be switched around some other way. A lot of interesting conditions come from chromosomal abnormalities on chromosomes that wouldn't let you survive even to birth if you had just a plain trisomy. And apparently some are completely or nearly asymptomatic, so nobody knows about them until somebody does genetic testing for an unrelated reason. (Triple X is one of the ones that can be near-asymptomatic, actually. Also, XYY males.)

There are also a plethora of physical side effects from various drugs (anti psychotics are the worst for these)... dyskinesia, for example. Although, that has noticeable tics associated with it... But many people don't pick up on those right away (cause they can be mild) and just notice "something off" with the person.

I've just got to say that I think you're fantastic standing out against the flow of mediocre bullying that surrounds you.

My advice is this, keep a record of every incident of bullying that particularly galls you. Keep a diary, write down who said what, and put down dates. After a few weeks you should have a picture of what's going on.

Then see about who you can go to with this information. This could be invaluable if the woman concerned is forced out of employment. You say she's been driven to the brink of suicide by the abuse she's receiving. There must be a union, or some disability rights organisation that you could take this too.

Is there any chance you could find out more about this woman's family? If she lives in sheltered accommodation or with her family then SOMEBODY must give a damn (besides your good self.)

I've seen this kind of thing myself at work and in schools, and it takes just one person to turn the tide.

"Normal" people are the real ret*ds.

No idea what is up with her, but description I think I have once seen someone who might match.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilsons_disease