Commentary on “Why study the history of learning disability?”

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Why study the history of learning disability?” by Goodey.

In his paper, Goodey makes the point that the term “learning disability” is not a fixed, stable concept, but one which has changed and evolved over time. This commentary explores the difference between care staff and professional understandings of people with learning disabilities including how these have changed in recent times.

Care staff knowledge is likely to be based on direct experiences of particular people with learning disabilities whilst professional knowledge is likely to be based on theoretical concepts of general application. These differences in source of knowledge may interfere with desired collaboration between staff and professionals.

This commentary suggests that differences in understandings should be recognised and the application of theory to practice is far from simple.