Labeling and the perception of handicap among black mildly mentally retarded adults.

Participant-observational research and interviewing with 45 black young adults who were labeled mildly mentally retarded during their school years indicated that the majority of these persons continued to label themselves in various ways and to perceive themselves as adaptively limited. Moreover, all of their parents labeled their adult children and recognized limitations in their adaptive behavior; observations confirmed the presence of various adaptive limitations. We concluded that these black mildly retarded adults did not "disappear" into their communities but continued to see themselves and be seen by others as limited in adaptive skills, particularly "academic" skills such as reading and writing.