Description: This popular clinical reference and text provides a multisystems perspective on childhood disability and its effects on family life. The volume examines how child, family, ecological, and sociocultural variables intertwine to shape the ways families respond to disability, and how professionals can promote coping, adaptation, and empowerment. Accessible and engaging, the book integrates theory and research with vignettes and firsthand reflections from family members.
Review Quotes: "This important book does a wonderful job of integrating the authors' longstanding themes of respect and compassion with the most current information on the family functioning, treatment, and education of people with a range of disabilities. This is an exceptionally valuable resource for professionals in any discipline who serve families coping with disability. It will be a useful text for graduate students in social work."--Sandra L. Harris, PhD, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
"The scholarship and keen insight of Seligman and Darling have informed and guided my work as a clinical psychologist with families of children with disabilities, as well as my own family life with a child who has autism. This book is a tour de force of breadth and depth in its summaries of research and theory and their real-life applications. It is truly an essential and comprehensive resource for practitioners and researchers, and an excellent text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in special education, social work, psychology, family studies, and pediatric specialties."--Robert A. Naseef, PhD, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania "Seligman and Darling effectively blend clinical insight, current research, and cultural sensitivity in this substantive and exciting third edition. The book demonstrates how researchers look beyond the impact of special children on mothers, promoting a conceptualization of family well-being that includes fathers, siblings, and grandparents. Offering fresh perspectives on families, this extraordinary book is sufficiently accessible for students and will also be appreciated by professionals in the field."--Jan B. Blacher, PhD, University of California, Riverside