Blog About Vincent Syndrome

In this recording, many children and young adults, who learn slower, were interviewed. Some of the children that were interviewed talked about not understanding why they were different. One child said he was riding on the school bus when a child asked a “special” student if he could help him with his homework. The “special” student looked at a kids vocabulary words and realized that they were a lot harder than his. He was learning words like cow, sheep, and sleep, while the other child was learning words like forbidden and harder. When the children would go to school the teachers would tell them that they were different and they wouldn’t take the extra time to deal with them. One girl was in class one day making a snowman. She pulled something and accidentally knocked over a glue can and spilled it everywhere. Her teacher got made at her and yelled and then sent her to the corner for time-out. Through listening to many of these recordings, it seemed as if the teachers thought these students were stupid because they did things differently. All of these children were sent to special ed and based upon what people said about it, it is for people who don’t catch on to things as fast.
The most significant and touching story to me was about a boy named Vincent. He had a case of mental retardation but there was no specific name for it because he had so many different symptoms. So, they simply named it after him. It was called Vincent Syndrome. Vincent was living, as close to a normal like as he could live. He was enrolled in basketball, Special Olympics, and had a job. After a while, his life slowly started going down hill. He quit basketball, the Special Olympics and then his job. His family didn’t understand why he did this. They were very confused. His mother thought it was a chemical imbalance of the brain. Where as his brother thought Vincent was tired of doing the same thing every day. After Vincent quit everything, he retreated to his room and sometimes slept as much as eighteen hours a day. Every time someone would ask him why he quit his job, he would quickly change the subject. One day, his sister decided to take him to his old work place. On their way there Vincent was very excited, but once there, he became very overwhelmed, so they left.
Later on in his life, Vincent’s family decided it was time for him to have a job and be active again. So, they built a chicken coop outside their house and it was Vincent’s job to take care of them. Vincent was very fond of the chickens. He always made sure that their coop was clean and was very conscious about their free-range feeding.
This story was very touching to me because my family knows a family with a mentally challenged child. This family does all they can to help their child have a normal life. They send him to a school where he can get special help, but still be with the other kids, they enroll him in many sports activities, and they have a speech therapist for him. Both of these families teach their children how to lead and live a completely normal life.