I, personally, often find it emotionally painful to read people described as if they aren't people, or suggestions on how to prevent abnormal people's birth, or people trying to split off and cure integral parts of who someone is(such as autism). In this database, I will describe abnormalities that range from Triploid Syndrome(69 chromosomes, almost always miscarried, low life expectancy) to lefthandedness(dominant hand is the left one instead of the right one) to giftedness(higher than average abilities in various cognitive areas, above 130 IQ score).
I've tried to use nonprejudiced terms. For example, when I talk about problems, I call them problems, not abnormalities, since abnormalities aren't always problems(especially when you're talking about neurological abnormalities). In terms of person first language, I try to avoid it in conditions that are usually part of someone's identity, because it implies things like that the abnormality is bad, is normally incompatible with personhood(so you have to twist the language around to point out that this is a person) and that it's unimportant to a person's identity. We don't insist on person first language for gender(man, woman), culture/religion/race(Jew, Christian, Asian), societal tasks(parent, firefighter, police officer), personality traits(shy, outgoing), talents(singer, artist, computer nerd) or normal physical traits(tall, short, blond, brown-eyed, thin). Only 'disabilities' are reffered to by person first language. If your child has a condition affecting how they think, read Jim Sinclair's Don't Mourn for Us, by an autistic person. It's about autism, but much of it is relevant for most congenital conditions with neurological effects(with the exception of conditions that inherently cause unhappiness such as bipolar disorder). Also read Max's Magic by Janet Estes, mother of 2 year old Max, who has Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome. Lastly, I also suggest reading Silver Linings of Troublesome Traits, which is about Williams Syndrome.
In the database, I've included some terms widely considered offensive to help people find the syndrome page. For example, if someone does not know the term Down Syndrome but does know mongolism, they can find the Down Syndrome page. Offensive terms are in italics.
Anyway, click on the first letter of the condition you want to search for, or click on the category it fits in. If I don't have information on the condition you want to know about e-mail me and I'll put up a page on it.
Chromosome Abnormalities