re: Is The Word "Retarded" Offensive?

No you are absolutely correct in terms.of someone using words that might hurt his feelings. It's definitely a process of acceptance. He tells me all the time he's going to play football for the Saints. And I don't tell him he's not because one day he will realize that that will never be a possibility for him. But he has to come to realizations about his limitations in his own time and a lot of it will come through interactions as described above. However, not speaking to him or speaking as though he doesn't exist is beyond rude. It's way more offensive than people using a word I don't like so much. Bad attitudes are a million times worse than bad words.