摘要：Incidentally, the term mentally retarded is growing in popularity among parents in the United States as a synonym for the mentally deficient. It has the advantage of a connotation more hopeful of successful adjustment of the child; the term mentally deficient is loaded with overtones of past futility and failure. Moreover, to some people, it suggests structural in addition to functional impairment which is not necessarily the case. It is interesting that in Britain backwardness is used in much the same sense as we use mental retardation.
