Intellectual disabilities, challenging behaviour and referral texts: a critical discourse analysis

Abstract

The texts of referrals written by workers in residential services for people with learning difficulties ¹ constitute sites where contemporary discourses of intellectual disabilities are being constructed. This paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine referrals made to a Community Learning Disability Team (CLDT). The study finds referral forms position the person with intellectual disabilities as a problem to be solved, as in need of surveillance, and show evidence of the routinisation of daily life, surveillance, and mortification of the self.

Keywords:

• referrals
• critical discourse analysis
• intellectual disabilities
• challenging behaviour
• Community Learning Disability Team

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their useful feedback and suggestions towards making this a better paper.

Notes

1. We use the words ‘person with learning difficulty’ to identify with the ethos of ‘people first’ and the preferred language of self‐advocacy in the UK, however we also used the words ‘intellectual disabilities’ when we make general academic reference. The term ‘learning disability’ is also used here as this is the actual wording of the professionals in the community team. Such ‘overwording’ (Fairclough, 1992, 193) needs further investigation.