Making sense of disability: low-income, Puerto Rican parents' theories of the problem.
This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the views of 12 low-income Puerto Rican parents whose children were classified as learning disabled or mildly mentally retarded. Different cultural meanings of disability and normalcy led parents to reject the notion of disability and focus on the impact of family identity, language confusion, and detrimental educational practices on children's school performance. Parents' views were in line with current arguments against labeling and English-only instruction.
Harry
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Department of Special Education, University of Maryland, College Park.
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004519:Education, Special; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D009626:Terminology as Topic