Abstract:   In recent years, it is advocated that the home service for mentally retarded children shift from individualbased support to familybased support, attaching more attention to the building of family support system. From the qualitative analysis of cases that social workers adopt strengths perspective to carry out family support, it has been found that there are multiaspects of strengths in both mentally retarded children and their families. The strengths are the breakthrough points for the home service of social work and the key to the building of family support system. Social work needs to integrate service and resources to build a comprehensive support network for them. The application of strengths perspective has to take into account Chinese systems and cultural background.

Key words: strengths perspective, mentally retarded children, Family support