Working with Parents of Children who have Severe Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Having a child with severe learning disabilities produces a multiplicity of challenges for the family: medical, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural, educational and social. Inevitable anticipation of an `average' family development is suddenly replaced by a very different reality which must be adjusted to if the family are going to function optimally in the long term. Child mental-health professionals have a major role in facilitating this adjustment, evaluating the special medical, psychological, educational and social needs of all individuals, and undertaking appropriate intervention and consultative work while being mindful of inevitable differences from families who do not have a severely learning disabled member. Fulfilment in this area of work arises out of the demands it makes on all areas of a child mental-health professional's knowledge and skills and the integration of these for the benefit of not only the child and family but also the broader environment within which they function.