Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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5.2 Approaches to understanding issues for parents with
intellectual disability
Llewellyn et al. (2008: 293) identify three phases of research on parenting
and adults with learning disabilities over the past six decades. The first
phase, from the 1940s, primarily concentrated on the heritability of
intellectual disability. Nowadays, researchers no longer ask questions
about whether people with intellectual disability should or should not be
allowed to have children. Nevertheless, community and social attitudes
can still be at variance with research evidence. During the second phase,
researchers turned their attention to parenting adequacy and parenting
training. The third and current phase centres on a greater concern for the
family, community and social context in which parents with intellectual
disability and their children are located rather than on the individual
parent.
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Accessible
and Appropriate of Provision on <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Literature</strong>
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
Reinders’ analysis (2008) demonstrates how the principle of equality has
guided research in the Netherlands and its importance in highlighting
discriminatory responses based on stereotypes of people with
intellectual disability as parents. He concludes (from an analysis of the
debates surrounding parenting by people with intellectual disabilities)
that there is not one cause for the difficulties experienced by some
parents with intellectual disability, and that designating psychological
factors as the differential cause is inadequate.
5.3 Tools for identifying parents with intellectual disabilities
According to Tarleton et al. (2006), a number of tools for identifying
parents with learning disabilities have been developed in the UK to
help staff identify whether a person has a learning difficulty. The
Sanderson Screening Tool (also referred to as the STRAP-LD (Screening
Tool Relating to the Assessment of Parents with suspected Learning
Difficulties)) was designed to enable non-psychologists to carry out a
brief assessment with parents with suspected learning difficulties, to
indicate whether a referral to clinical psychology services is necessary.
This test was developed for health visitors, midwives, social workers
and other professionals and involves asking the adult to read a passage.
Scores are provided for the number of mistakes made. The adult is then
asked eight questions about the information in the passage. The tool
is then returned to the psychology department that developed it, who