Emilie Weight
| Sharing insights on parenting and intellectual disability
About
Emilie Weight is a professional speaker affiliated with Duke University who shares deeply personal insights drawn from her experience as a parent. She delivered a TED talk in 2017 titled "3 things I learned from my intellectually disabled son," where she explored the profound lessons that came from raising her son.
Weight's speaking focuses on the transformative perspectives that can emerge from parenting a child with intellectual disabilities. Through her presentations, she offers audiences a window into experiences that challenge conventional assumptions about ability, learning, and what it means to lead a meaningful life.
Her work brings attention to often-overlooked wisdom that can come from individuals with intellectual disabilities and the families who support them.
What Emilie Talks About
Lessons learned from parenting a child with intellectual disabilities
Challenging assumptions about ability and intelligence
Finding meaning and growth through caregiving experiences
Perspectives on inclusion and disability awareness
Talks1
3 things I learned from my intellectually disabled son
As a mother with a son affected with Fragile X syndrome -- a genetic disorder -- Emilie Weight believes that a diagnosis of disability can create opportunity, not despair. Her son's differences compelled her to question her inner self and her role in the world. With this new mindset she discovered his true superhero qualities when she stopped treating him like a patient and started treating him like a partner, leading her to three essential tools for how to approach life.
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