From Normal Baby to Handicapped Child: Unravelling the Idea of Subnormality in Families of Mentally Handicapped Children

Abstract

This paper argues that the clinical perspective on mental handicap which underpins most research and professional practice in the field does not help us to explain or understand how mentally handicapped people are valued and treated in their day-to-day dealings with others. Using material gathered in interviews with the parents of mentally handicapped children, the paper plots the unfolding of the idea of subnormality and traces the gradual transition in the child's status as he drifts from normal baby to handicapped infant. It shows how subnormality emerges as a social state, which can be defined in terms of the qualities and capacities which are ascribed to or withheld from mentally handicapped people. In this sense, it is suggested that the social roles allocated to mentally handicapped people are created and shaped from the social meanings imputed to the diagnosis.

Looking at the future and seeing the past: the challenge of the middle years of parenting a child with intellectual disabilities

“…Mothers of disabled children are considered to experience a form of ‘biographical disruption’ (Bury 1982) when they first become parents of children with IDs (Booth 1978). ‘Biographical disruption’ refers to the disruption of one's former assumption and behaviours, and to changes in self‐concept, resources and supportive networks.…”

‘Oh, those therapists will become your best friends’: maternal satisfaction with clinics providing physical, occupational and speech therapy services to children with disabilities

“…This fear leads to a preference for relationships with individuals who belong to the own or to one of the two wise categories. Research in families in which a child has a disability also suggests that mothers of children with disabilities may seek and value insular relationships with wise individuals who understand their kind of mothering (Birenbaum 1992, Booth 1978. For these mothers, relationships formed with wise health care professionals may be of special importance (Baine et al 1995, Jessop and Stein 1994, King et al 1996.…”

The identification and treatment of motor/learning difficulties: parents’perceptions and the role of the therapist

“…In this study, close examination of the children's individual diagnostic pathways reveals that frequently there were lengthy gaps between parental (and sometimes professional) suspicions and final confirmation. Even though the difficulty of distinguishing developmental delay from disorder is widely recognized, and the diagnostic process is well known to be lengthy (Meadow 1968, Booth 1978, there are probably few other childhood disorders where the course is so protracted and contact with medical staff so complex. It is to be hoped that, following the publication of Health for All Children (Hall 1989), parents' observations of their child are less likely to go unheeded and that referral routes might become more clearly delineated.…”