Accentuate the Positive: A Personal Profile of a Parent with Learning Difficulties

This paper uses case material from a research study of parents with learning difficulties to show why parental competence can only be assessed in the context of people's lives and upbringing. Drawing on the ideas of futures planning, a distinction is made between a ‘deficiency perspective’ and a ‘capacity perspective’ on personal development. These two perspectives are applied to the analysis of the personal profile of a parent with learning difficulties. The results present a challenge to the presumption of incompetence that often informs the professional response to parenting by people with learning difficulties.