Supporting parents with a learning disability, FASD or autism

Understanding parents with special needs and how you can help them

Failure to build in, from the outset, the extra time that a parent with a learning disability needs in order to learn and understand, puts that parent at a significant disadvantage in child protection proceedings, compared to parents without a learning disability.

2016 update of Good Practice Guidance on working with parents with a learning disability

It’s quite common for parents with learning disabilities to spend some time in a foster placement to learn important skills and to have a parenting assessment. These mothers make up a high percentage of parents involved in care proceedings; in 2008, 12.5% of parents in care proceedings in England and Wales had learning disabilities.

Autism in women and girls is often undiagnosed and misunderstood, presenting differently from male autism. Some mothers coming into foster placements may have difficulties on the autistic spectrum, so its important to understand their needs and how we can support them.

Parents with a learning disability often struggle to understand abstract concepts, can’t easily access resources that rely on the ability to read and may find organising their babies’ routines a challenge. They also have to face a common perception amongst the public and professionals that they can’t learn the necessary skills to parent.

Understanding the strengths and needs of every parent is important, and for a parent with a learning disability we need to be really creative in how we support their growth. They may take a bit longer to learn how to do something and things like visual prompts can be very helpful. They may also have compensatory strategies which we can encourage; things like having a good memory.

Any information they are given, for example about their parenting assessment, needs to be accessible to them and their disability needs to be considered as part of a longer-term support package. In the Learning Zone, there are lots of resources designed for parents with learning disabilities. You can also read more about anti-discriminatory practice in Good practice guidance on working with parents with a learning disability (2007)

Alcohol can cause more damage to an unborn baby than any other drug. When a pregnant woman drinks, the alcohol in her bloodstream passes through the placenta into the baby's blood which can harm brain cells and damage the nervous system causing a variety of symptoms known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

Children and adults with FASD often experience difficulties in dealing with information. They may find it hard to translate hearing into doing, thinking into saying, reading into speaking or feeling into words. They may also have difficulty in applying specific learning to new experiences or situations and in perceiving similarities and differences. This means they may not be able to see patterns, predict events or make judgments.

Research in 2018 estimated that over 6% of the population may be affected by FASD. Every person with FASD is affected differently, and are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, which can contribute to serious social and behavioural problems. FASD is often called a ‘hidden disability.’

Our role might include helping a parent to access diagnosis or specific support for themselves or their child. There are excellent resources at FASD-UK including this excellent animation about alcohol in pregnancy, and NOFAS-UK.org including this discussion paper on Parents with FASD.

Parents with autism also need us to really listen and understand the triggers which make them anxious and how to manage or avoid these.

There are some really great resources out there to increase our knowledge and share with parents as we support them. The National Autistic Society has webpages on all kinds of things, from managing money, to explaining to non-autistic people how to be more sensitive to the ways that autistic people see the world.

This series of pictures by artist Rosanna Rosetti summarises some important ways that autism particularly affects women and girls.

Looking for helpful links, films and tools for reflection?

Visit the learning zone