One of the basic rights for most adult citizens is to be a parent, which is a common life experience for many people. However, this is still not the case for many people with learning disabilities. Iva Strnadová explores this complex issue.
While there are circumstances, such as a person’s high level of support needs, that can affect the ability of people with learning disabilities to have children, research shows they can be good parents, particularly if supports are in place. Unfortunately, many of these parents have their children removed from their care (1).
Do you think this only happens when a parent with learning disabilities neglects or abuses their child? Wrong! Research shows these parents have their child removed even if claims of neglect are unsubstantiated (2). Furthermore, child welfare workers, social workers and judges often assume that people with learning disabilities cannot be good parents, a presumption that can potentially influence their professional judgement.
In a recent Australian study my colleagues and I conducted about effective models of peer supports for parents with learning disabilities, narratives of such injustice were far too common (3). A mother whose first child was removed because of her postnatal depression (she was allowed to keep her second child as she was free of postnatal-depression at that stage); a mother in a domestic violence situation, which was resolved by authorities removing children from their mother’s care (leaving the mother in the same violent environment).
Would the narratives be the same if these mothers did not have the label of learning disabilities? I would greatly doubt that, a view supported by research showing that parents with learning disabilities have differential government assessment outcomes compared to other parents in similar circumstances (4).
Why is it that discrimination continues against parents based on their label of learning disabilities? The history of learning disabilities gives us some insight into this question. The institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities, their limited access to education, employment, and independent living, as well as a long history of sterilisation of many women, undoubtedly contributed to the misunderstanding in mainstream society that they cannot be good parents.
There are also systemic issues. Case-overload can prevent social workers and child welfare workers giving the time required to families. While in most western countries there are numerous services available to parents and their children (5), many are online, or too expensive for parents with learning disabilities (1).
Under-estimation
Last, but not the least, characteristics related to learning disabilities, such as a slower rate of acquiring new skills, contribute to the under-estimation of their natural parenting skills. In saying that, no person is born with all the knowledge and skills necessary to be a good parent. These need to be learnt. The difference is that people without learning disabilities are judged far less on the mistakes they make in the process of parenting, and their mistakes have less rar-reaching and detrimental results, than those made by people labelled as having learning disabilities. As a man, a friend with learning disabilities who brought up three children, said: “Having children is a good way to learn, because they teach you too, and you learn by mistakes. You make mistakes, you learn by it.”
What can be done to give parents with learning disabilities a better chance of bringing up their children? Like other parents, they need support structures. They need somebody to show them diverse parenting skills, such as preparing formula, or bathing a child. They can benefit from tailored supports, such as parenting programmes, and from access to suitable social networks. Providers of such support need to be aware that parents with learning disabilities are often poor, so expensive programs and resources will not work. And, importantly, supporters need to realise that everybody needs to learn, that everyone makes mistakes in the learning process, and that learning skills takes time.
References
(1) Gabrielle Hindmarsh, Gwynnyth Llewellyn, and Eric Emerson (2015), ‘Mothers with intellectual impairment and their 9-month-old infants’, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 59: 541-550.
(2) David McConnell, and Gwynnyth Llewellyn (2000), ‘Disability and discrimination in statutory child protection proceedings’, Disability & Society 15(6): 883-895.
(3) Iva Strnadová, Susan Collings, and Julie Loblinzk (2017), Parents with intellectual disabilities: Effective models of peer support. Research grant by School of Education, University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia.
(4) Maurice Feldman, David McConnell, and Marjorie Aunos (2012), ‘Parental cognitive impairment, mental health, and child outcomes in a child protection population’ Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities 5(1): 66-90.
(5) Berit Höglund (2012), ‘Pregnancy, childbirth and midwifery care among women with ID in Sweden: Epidemiological and descriptive studies’, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Readers interested in finding out more about this issue can go to: ‘The experiences of women with learning disabilities on contraception choice’ by Jan Walmsley, Liz Tilley et al http://journals.rcni.com/doi/abs/10.7748/phc.2016.e1139
Iva Strnadová is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of New South Wales Sydney, School of Education, Australia.
