Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the psychological transformation of mothers who wished for their high-functioning developmentally disabled children to be “normal”. We conducted semi-structured interviews with mothers of children diagnosed with a developmental disability but not an intellectual disability. Results showed that mothers underwent a five-stage transformational process: （1）suspecting that the child may not be “normal”, （2）facing the fact that the child is not “normal”, （3）obsessing over making the child “normal”, （4）questioning what it means to be “normal”, （5）adopting a new perspective transcending the need for the child to be “normal”. Mothers’ initial definitions of “normal” stipulated that the child must be the “same as others.” They then began to believe that the child “must be better than others”, but eventually concluded that “being superior to others does not matter.” However, some mothers were still anxious about whether their adult children are normal. Additionally, mothers tended to change their mind about whether their children should be “normal” when they did not feel pressured to make their children appear “normal”. Therefore, advocates must be aware that mothers should be the ones who decide whether their children are “normal”.
