Experiences of Parents of Retardates and Children With Cystic Fibrosis

RECENTLY there has been increasing recognition that counseling relationships with parents of mentally retarded children form an integral part of diagnosis and treatment of such children.^1,2 Alleviation of parental guilt and distress is not only crucial in enabling the parent to care for a retarded child at home, but also facilitates realistic appraisal of the necessity for institutional care. However, there is relatively little information about the routes traveled by mentally retarded children and their parents during the diagnostic period when they are most in need of this kind of help. It has been assumed that pediatricians, neurologists, and psychiatrists are the specialists most involved with mental retardation, but the extent of the contact between families of the retarded and these and other specialties remains a matter of speculation. In addition, there is relatively little nonimpressionistic information concerning what expectations parents