Chris Catherall and Ron Iphofen look at the implications for practice following a study that explored both fathers’ and mothers’ experiences of caring for a young person with severe learning disability

Parenting a child with severe learning disabilities can bring about many challenges for the parents and their families. These aspects have driven the research agenda in understanding the impact of disability, in particular parental stress and how parents adapt to their child’s disability and the care ‘burden’ (Abbeduto et al 2004, Flaherty and Glidden 2000, Fidler et al 2000).