Working Together for Child Health and Safety

Parents with special learning needs are often subject to discrimination and prejudice. An important example of this is the commonly held assumption that they are unable to adequately care for the health and safety of their children. This is reflected in high rates of child protection involvement and child removal. In fact, many parents with special learning needs are able to care for their children with minimal assistance. Others need a little extra help and support (McConnell & Llewellyn, 1998). Research has shown that with support and education matched to their learning needs many of these parents can learn to provide adequate care for the health and safety of their children (Feldman, ]998; Feldman & Case, 1999; Tymchuk & Feldman, 1991).