Mental retardation in the birth family

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Does having a parent with mental retardation make the child more likely to have mental retardation?

If the cause of a parent's mental retardation is genetic, then there is an increased risk of their children having mental retardation. Based on research in genetics, two people who do not have mental retardation, but have a history of genetic mental retardation in their families have a slightly increased risk of producing a child with mental retardation. The chances of a person with genetic mental retardation and a person without mental retardation bearing a child with mental retardation is about 20 percent. Two people who have genetic mental retardation have a 42 percent chance of producing a child with mental retardation (D'Souza, 1990). However, it is important to remember that there are thousands of causes of mental retardation and most of them are not genetic.

Excerpted from:
Parents Who Have Mental Retardation
By Debby Ingram, Research Associate, The Arc

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