Opening the door to new ways of working with parents with learning disabilities

People with learning disabilities are over-represented within child protection services, but evidence on the numbers of parents with learning disabilities are not generally recorded, nor do we know how many of them are involved with social services.

In a seminar at the Social Work Show, independent social workers Cathy Sharman and Jo James discussed ParentAssess. Bringing together law, policy and practical guidance, Parent Assess is developing new ways of working, using specialist knowledge and skills for social workers and others working with vulnerable parents, particularly parents with a learning disability or additional needs.

They looked at some common beliefs and myths about parents with learning disabilities including:
- A low IQ of 65 automatically means that a person will have a lower parenting capacity (False)
- People with a learning disability are more likely to have been neglected or abused in childhood (True)
- Children of Parents with LD are more likely to have accidents and behaviour problems (False)
- Children of parents with a learning disability are more likely to experience developmental delay. (True)

Outlining a framework for working with learning disabled parents, Cathy Sharman said,
‘We have to think about how we speak. I know we talk about this all the time but still I walk into meetings with senior social workers and still people talk in ways that are not just people with learning disabilities but anyone who isn’t a social workers would struggle to understand. These are some of the words we use as if they are ordinary day-to-day language for social workers but no-one outside a social work understands them in the ways we think they do; IRO, assessment – what does that mean? So we have to think about how we talk to each other in front of parents.

With meetings, she said, ‘If the parent’s attention span is 20mins and a meeting is two hours long, everything after 20 mins -- they are not going to hear. So meetings with parents need to have breaks.’

Reports were another key area: ‘Can we produce a report for a parent in simplified form, using pictures where necessary?

‘Who do we write reports for?’ she said.’ Can we produce a report for a parent in simplified form, using pictures where necessary? When we write, do so in simple sentences, because that makes it easier to understand.

‘If you are working with someone with limited verbal skills, be creative. Use drawings. You don’t have to be good at drawing to use drawing in your practicey -- stick figures and bad drawing are okay. It can be helpful and empowering for the other person

‘Sit with them and watch video clips together, say “this is what I want you to do.”’
One approach, Jo James said, is using figures in different colours to describe situations. It means playing with them, turning over cards, asking ‘what does this red figure mean?’ Videos were especially useful, including using short clips from Youtube.

‘We talk about creative approaches for children but we need them for parents too,’ Cathy Sharman said. ‘ The Equalities Act 2010 means it is the law. You have to make reasonable adjustments.

‘You would not fix a meeting on the second floor with no lift for a person in a wheelchair , and so too is taking account and supporting people as parents who have Learning Disabilities.’

She quoted good practice guidance from Bristol University. This included asking
-- parents what’s helped them to learn in the past;
-- modelling and role play
-- personalised props (e.g. measuring)
-- Feedback, discussion, comparison (videos of tasks)
-- Teaching in their home as far as possible, limit background noise
-- Telling the key people in their life what’s going on
-- Use visual aids such as cards, photos, scaling, timelines, drawing etc.
-- Step by step pictures/videos showing how something’s done,
-- Repetition, frequent practice

‘Sometimes it helps to hold calming objects – in our packs we have squeeze balls etc for parents to hold while talking so if that helps them, go with it.

‘At the end of a parent assessment we produce a short report – never more than two sides.’

Cathy Sharman concluded, ‘we are trying to move to a place where it is about the parent, not about the process.’

Ultimately, they said, improving services for parents with learning disabilities can improve services for everyone.