The Family Life Cycle and Significant Intellectual Disability

By Ann Turnbull and Rud Turnbull

Have you ever commented that a person is “going through a stage?” Probably. But have you thought about “stages” as they relate to families, especially those who have adolescents and young adults with significant intellectual disabilities?
There are between 6 and 24 stages representing the family’s passage through time, but let’s keep it simple and consider only these stages:

• Marriage and the new couple
• Families with young children
• Families with adolescents
• Families with children launching to adulthood
• Families in post-parental years
• Families with parents who are elderly
• Death of parents

These stages occur in most families, can be anticipated at certain defined times in the family life cycle, and are generally symbolized by age-appropriate “punctuation marks” such as confirmation, bar and bat mitzvah, a driver’s license, graduation from high school, and marriage. That’s the norm. But what happens to your family life cycle when your child has a significant intellectual disability?

Read More Here:
http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/192/over4.html