Parenting with Learning Difficulties: Lessons for Practitioners

Abstract

SUMMARY Parents with learning difficulties form an underserved needs group whose numbers are steadily increasing and are likely to continue to do so as a result of deinstitutionalization, community care and the acceptance of 'ordinary life' principles as a basis for service provision. This article reviews the research literature on parenting by people with learning difficulties in order to draw out the lessons for practitioners and to assist them in developing a clearer view of their aims and approach when working with these families. Case vignettes from an ongoing study of mothers and fathers with learning difficulties are used to illustrate the common themes. The authors conclude that service providers still have much to learn about how best they can secure and uphold the citizenship rights of these parents as well as protect the welfare of their children. The true prevalence of parents with learning difficulties is unknown and possibly unknowable. At the moment, as Whitman et al. (1986) have observed, 'the mentally retarded parent represents an invisible and underserved special-needs population'. Most researchers agree, however, that their numbers are steadily increasing and will probably continue to do so as a result of changing attitudes towards sexuality, deinstitutionalization, decreased segregation and wider opportunities for independent living and participation in the community (Haavik and Menninger, 1981; Rosenberg and McTate, 1982). This trend calls for recognition in the planning and delivery of services and in the approach of practitioners working in this field. Already, for example, Lancashire County Council have been censured by the Local Government Ombudsman for maladministration in failing to provide the level of counselling and support needed by a mother with learning difficulties. The Ombudsman reccomended that the Council 'need to ensure that their social workers have a clearer view of what their aims are at any one time when working with such clients' (Report by the Local Government Ombudsman, 1991). In this paper, we set out to review some of the main practice principles that emerge from the literature on parents with learning difficulties, and to illustrate the pressing need for a new deal for these families by drawing on case material from an ongoing study of their experiences of child-rearing and parenthood (Booth and Booth, 1992).