The Lives of Children and Adolescents with Disabilities

This book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in disability studies, childhood studies, medicine and health sciences, and sociology. It also provides insights that will be of use and value to professionals working with disabled children and adolescents in education, health and in disability-specific services.

Opening with four narratives that offer the reader a window into the lived experience of disabled children, adolescents and their families, subsequent chapters explore a range of issues facing disabled children from early childhood through to late adolescence. Topics include family life, early intervention, inclusive and post-secondary education, the right to play, digital participation, the effects of labelling and matters relating to agency and sexuality.

With chapters discussing research from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK amongst others, this book:

• contributes to the existing body of knowledge about the lives of disabled children and adolescents, with a focus on socially created disabling factors
• provides the reader with analysis of issues affecting disabled children and adolescents according to different conceptual frameworks, national contexts and with regard to different types of impairments/disabilities
• highlights the main issues that confront disabled children and adolescents, their families and their allies in the early twenty-first century
• highlights the importance of actively listening to the perspectives of disabled children and adolescents

It provides a rich source of knowledge and information about the lives of disabled children and adolescents, and a variety of perspectives on how their lives are affected by material and non-material factors, social structures and cultural constructions.