Presume Competence
Disclaimer: I sincerely hope this doesn't come across as offensive towards anyone with a cognitive disability. That is not at all my intent. I truly believe the most important thing is for a person to be able to feel and give love, everything else is bonus. Since Wes was only a few months old and the extent of his brain injury became more and more apparent, there has been a lingering question about cognition. No one wants to audibly raise the question and yet we all wonder in silence "how much does he understand?". We constantly look for clues that despite his motor, sensory, communication, medical, hearing, and vision difficulties, his cognition is intact, he understands the world. I try not to be naive in thinking he would be disabled in every area but his cognition but still I have that hope. It is one thing to live your life in a wheelchair (which we are still hopeful won't be the case for Wes) but another entirely to have no or limited abilit...