Ulla Riesberg, MOBILE – Selbstbestimmtes Leben Behinderter e. V. - Germany
A pilot project - 2006 to 2009
Building up a support service for families Networking with different services in the community Research on the living conditions and support of parents with disabilities
Research started in the beginning of the 1990ies by Prof. U. Pixa-Kettner vom Bremen First survey in 1993: 969 parenthoods – 1366 children Follow-up research in 2007 1584 parenthoods - 2199 children Increase of 40%
People with intellectual disabilities have children with intellectual disabilities
have more children than the average
Parents with intellectual disabilities have insufficient parental skills and they are not able to develop them.
abuse and neglect their children
Most intellectual disabilities are non genetic High risk of developmental delay in early childhood Language development often affected Necessity of supporting child development by earlyintervention programs etc.
Pregnancies are often unwanted Lack of sex education and insufficient birth control Separation of parent and child often lead to the desire for a second child
Maternal sensitivity and intuitive parental skills do not depend on intelligence no mono-causal relation between parental skills and intellectual disabilities Social factors like poorness, unemployment, bad health conditions, low level of education, experiencing alcoholism, violence or abuse affect parental behaviour
No mono-causal attribution of intellectual disability and child neglect and child abuse Social factors mentioned above should be taken in account here as well
Our society is an Information society,
High amount of written information
People with intellectual disabilities
do not process information by the way
need time and repetition to learn
Difficulties of parents to recognize the need of the child and fulfill it FIRST! Supporting families with preadolescent and adolescent children
Recognizing the needs of the child and fulfilling it as a basic parental skill
Lacking skill might be a reason for separation of parent and child
Lack of methods and ideas how to teach parents to put the own needs aside
Be aware of the parents needs
High correlation between life quality and family atmosphere
Puberty is a challenge for all parents, for every family! trouble with the changes and the new behavior of their children. people with intellectual disabilities have low self-confidence and self-esteem. Revolt of the children causes high insecurity and helplessness
can develop parental skills
often grow through parenthood
deserve the chance to live together
need a strong lobby
to develop new methods and ideas for family support to do research on the needs of parents with disabilities and there children to accept limitations, and realize when a separation is necessary
Albert Lenz, Ulla Riesberg, Birgit Rothenberg, Christiane Sprung: Familie leben trotz intellektueller Beeinträchtigung. Begleitete Elternschaft in der Praxis. Freiburg, 2010 Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Rebekah Grace-Dunn and Marjolien Dibden: As Children Grow Older: Into the Future for Parents with intellectual disabilities, Melbourne 1998 Ursula Pixa-Kettner: Elternschaften von Menschen mit geistiger Behinderung in Deutschland. Ergebnisse einer zweiten bundesweiten Fragebogenerhebung. In: Geistige Behinderung, 4/07, Jg. 46, S. 309 – 321 Ursula Pixa-Kettner und Kadidja Rohmann: Besondere Familien – Welche Unterstützung brauchen Eltern mit Lernschwierigkeiten und ihre Kinder? – Forschungsbericht, Bremen im April 2012 Magnus Prangenberg: Zur Geschichte der internationalen Fachdiskussion über Elternschaft von Menschen mit einer geistigen Behinderung. In: Ursula Pixa-Kettner (Hg.) Tabu oder Normalität? Eltern mit geistiger Behinderung und ihre Kinder. Heidelberg, 2006. S. 25 – 46
Contact: Ulla Riesberg MOBILE – Selbstbestimmtes Leben Behinderter e. V.
Steinstr. 9 44147 Dortmund Tel. 0049/(0)231/ 477 32 16 23
[email protected]
