The family plays an important role in the adaptation process of children with mental retardation in the socio-cultural context. Literature has showed us similarities and differences not only in the way that families have been interacting with their mentally retarded child, but also between them and families of typically developing children. So, this article aims to describe some aspects of the family functioning of children with mental retardation comparing them to those from families of children with a typical development. We emphasize the relationships developed in different family subsystems, i.e. husband-wife, parents-child, and child-sibling. In order to understand the family development and adaptation process of children with mental retardation, we need, firstly, to know how these families function. However, to understand the family functioning we need to take into account what we know about behavioural genetics nowadays.
mental retardation; preschool children; family; family relations