Ordinary Families, Special Children, Third Edition

Milton Seligman, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology in Education at the University of Pittsburgh. His chief academic interest is in the area of childhood disability and the family. Other areas of instruction and scholarship include individual and group psychotherapy and clinical supervision. Retired since 2004, Dr. Seligman maintains a private practice and serves on the editorial board for the Journal for Specialists in Group Work. Rosalyn Benjamin Darling, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Prior to assuming her academic position, she served for 15 years as the executive director of an agency serving young children with disabilities and their families and was the founder and first president of the Early Intervention Providers Association of Pennsylvania. Dr. Darling has authored or coauthored eight books and numerous articles and chapters on disability and human services. She has played an active role in many state- and national-level disability-related organizations and committees and is currently engaged in research on orientations toward disability.

I. Conceptual Framework

1. Introduction and Conceptual Framework I: Social and Cultural Systems

2. Conceptual Framework II: Family Systems Theory and Childhood Disability

3. All Families Are Not Alike: Social and Cultural Diversity in Reaction to Childhood Disability

II. The Family Life Cycle

4. Becoming the Parent of a Child with a Disability: Reactions to First Information

5. Childhood: Continuing Adaptation

6. Looking to the Future: Adolescence and Adulthood

III. The Family System

7. Effects on the Family as a System

8. Effects on Fathers

9. Effects on Siblings

10. Effects on Grandparents

IV. Approaches to Intervention

11. Professional–Family Interaction: Working toward Partnership

12. Perspectives and Approaches for Working with Families

13. Applying a Partnership Approach to Identifying Family Resources, Concerns, and Priorities: Developing Family Service Plans