The family system of moderately mentally retarded children

ABSTRACT. Families of 39 moderately mentally retarded children (behaviourally disordered and non‐behaviourally disordered) were classified according to the Reiss Card‐Sort procedure. Thirty‐four out of the 39 families were found to have a faulty family system according to Reiss' typology, distant sensitive or consensus sensitive Though behaviour disorders in the moderately mentally retarded child were not found to be related to the type of faulty family, parental perceptions of their child's behavioural disorder were different in the distant sensitive and consensus sensitive types. Results are discussed in the context of the interface between the family system and the adaptation of the mentally retarded child.