Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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While most parent education programmes focus on the teaching of
parenting skills, McGaw, Ball and Clark (2002) set up a parent group
with a different focus. Their parent group met for 14 sessions and
concentrated <strong>Literature</strong> on relationships <strong>Review</strong> on issues Provision (such of Appropriate as recognising and Accessible and managing
emotions, trusting Support others, to People using with negotiating an Intellectual skills), Disability employing who are a cognitive
behavioural Experiencing approach. They Crisis found Pregnancy that parents who took part in the
group had a more positive self-concept and had improved relationships
(with, for example, partners or friends) by the end compared to a group
of parents who did not attend the sessions. The group itself acted as a
way of extending parents’ social networks, with some of the relationships
formed in the group continuing after the group disbanded.
5.7.2 Competence-promoting support programmes
Tucker and Johnson (1989) distinguished between competencepromoting
type support, which helped parents to learn and achieve
by themselves, and competence-inhibiting support, which involved
‘doing’ for the parents rather than helping them to learn and achieve
for themselves. Competence-inhibiting support denied parents the
opportunity to learn, undermined their confidence and made their
situation worse. A key factor in determining the effectiveness of support
is how parents perceive the support they are offered (Llewellyn &
McConnell, 2005).
Gates (2007: 561) identified four main areas of support:
1. Practical help and teaching
2. The attitudes of professionals and the services they represent:
People with disabilities should be given their full and proper
status as parents first (Booth and Booth, 1994a)
3. Need of all parents to make supportive relationships with
friends in their local area. Research suggests that this need is
particularly relevant to parents who have a learning disability
(Campion, 1995; Booth and Booth, 2000)
4. Supports related to the environment: Parents with intellectual
disability are more likely to experience, for example, poverty and
poor housing; this disadvantage is often worsened by prejudice
and stereotypical attitudes. It is essential that professionals
understand the impact of these factors on a family.