“What Didn’t I Do for this Child?”: Parents’ Retrospective Construction of their Child’s CP Diagnostic Process

Increased life expectancy exposes ageing parents to a lifetime of living with a child with Cerebral Palsy (CP). The current study aims to highlight the ways in which ageing parents retrospectively construct child’s CP diagnostic process. A phenomenological–narrative perspective was performed, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 ageing parents of children with CP, followed by a content analysis. Three major phases in coping with child’s CP emerged: (1) “What’s wrong with my child? Give me a name”: Searching for extrinsic recognition of the pathology, (2) “When you first hear the words you are “thrown” into a new world”: Perceiving the bad news as a turning point, and (3) “You won’t get any special treatment”: A lifetime of maneuvering between disability and able-bodied society. Constructing positive narrative helps parents achieve a sense of closure at this stage of their lives and it can serve as a therapeutic toll.