This film is an excerpt from a webinar held on Thursday 23 July 2026, in which Dr Layla Harding shares key messages from their doctoral research Attachment and Caregiving in the Context of Parental Learning Disabilities.
Parents with learning disabilities often face discriminatory judgments and ableist treatment while managing the everyday pressures and responsibilities of caring for their children.
This research explored how parents with learning disabilities care for their children. The researchers spent time with one mother and her children, and interviewed four other mothers with learning disabilities. The mothers shared their experiences, feelings, and approaches to caring for their children.
The research revealed six key themes:
Endangered childhoods and corrective parenting intentions
All mothers experienced traumatic childhoods involving neglect, abuse, or abandonment. They were motivated to provide their children with safety, love, and stability and to break intergenerational patterns of trauma.
Vulnerabilities in adult relationships
Most mothers had experienced domestic abuse or coercive control, influencing how they managed conflict and their children’s behaviour. Some acted protectively by leaving harmful relationships to safeguard themselves and their children.
Parenting under surveillance and judgment
Mothers felt closely scrutinised by professionals and others, which influenced their presentation and sometimes led to performative behaviour, limiting open discussion of challenges.
Idealising children and minimising difficulties
Several mothers downplayed struggles and presented idealised accounts of their children and relationships, often reflecting anxiety about judgment.
Difficulties with reflection
While mothers met practical caregiving needs, they often struggled to mentalise about children’s emotions or development. Reflections were sometimes superficial or borrowed from social norms and professional guidance.
Focus on practical caregiving
Parenting was often described in task-focused terms, emphasising feeding, routines, and physical traits, with less attention to relational or emotional aspects.
Key messages from the research:
- Assessment without support does not test parenting capacity - it tests unsupported parenting under stress.
- Communication and behaviour are shaped by the interaction between parents, professionals and systems - not simply by individual ability.
- Advocacy is not an add-on - it is essential for accuracy, fairness, and validity in assessment and safeguarding decision-making.
- Time-limited or snapshot assessment risks confusing stress-related fluctuation in parenting with stable incapacity.
- Strengths and difficulties coexist, but trauma and overload can obscure strengths that are essential for effective parenting.
- Parents experience one system, not separate services - practice must reflect integrated, coordinated understanding of the family, not siloed assessments.