Paper - Changing the discourse: we all must be knowledge brokers

This news of a paper by Peter Roesenbaum comes from CanChild:

Despite the current drive by healthcare professionals to move beyond categorical thinking and the use of negative "d-words" (i.e. damage, defect, depressing) in describing childhood disability, traditional thinking and language still pervades.

As healthcare professionals are only a small part of a child's life, it is imperative that we move the field forward so that our society recognizes the individual realities of each person, despite biological or functional differences.

To drive the field forward, health care professionals must become active knowledge brokers. By promoting the understanding and use of modern language, thoughts and actions surrounding childhood disability can be changed.

It is essential to replace the negative d-words that are so widely used with positive ideas such as diversity, difference, and development, which serve to remind us of the variability in our world.  

By engaging in this conversation with every individual and at every opportunity, whether it is through the clinic, case conferences, advocacy letters, online forums, social media, the field can move forward and align with modern thinking.  

Author: Rosenbaum P. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2016 Dec;58(12):1204. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.13280.