Disabled Kids

[Guest guest]

In the recent path we discussed the topic of " blaming " ourselves for birthing

club footed babies, feeling guilty, ashamed, not bonding with them, etc.

Today I read an artical and it had this following paragraph in it that I thought

was wonderful. In a few short words it sums up mountains of dialog.

More than a decade ago, my colleague Adrienne Asch and I began a review of

published narratives written by parents and persons with disabilities with what

struck us as some simple truths. We wrote, " The most important thing that

happens when a child with disabilities is born is that a child is born. The most

important thing that happens when a couple becomes parents of a child with

disabilities is that a couple becomes parents " (Ferguson & Asch, 1989, p. 108).

However, when we look at the history of professional responses to the birth of

such a child, we find patterns of research and practice that have, until

recently, assumed that the disability itself inevitably overwhelmed all other

considerations. The direction of the logic shifted, but the supposedly tragic

connotations of such births were consistently presented as inherent and

immutable.