"When I was young I wanted to be a geologist, you know, dinosaurs and stuff. But as I got older I became aware of my being in a wheel char and it dawned on me it wouldn't be possible."

This quotation from a disabled student interviewed for this book graphically illustrates how disabled boys and girls experience their childhood differently from most children. The challenge for those working with disabled children and young people is to enable them to negotiate their childhood successfully, and to help them in a world which may crush their hopes and dreams, confront them with barriers and prejudices, and exclude, bully or abuse them because of their difference.

Thinking inclusively means designing services to meet the needs of all children, not just those who are able bodied. Placing the experiences of disabled children at the heart of service planning will create high quality provision for all service users, addressing key issues such as communication, family support, protection, confidence in services, advocacy, children's rights and anti-oppressive practice.

Key features:
draws on disabled young people's own accounts of their childhood
describes their experiences of the health, education and welfare systems
offers explanations for continued prejudice against disabled people in an age of equal opportunity
assists professionals and organisations to understand and dismantle discriminatory practices
makes suggestions for more inclusive provision

Written by a leading authority in the field, this book is a valuable text for childcare professionals in all sectors as well as anyone with an interest in promoting social justice.

Childrens homes have cultures which vary from the benign to the malignant. Using a distinctive cross-institutional design, this study of 48 childrens homes shows how some were characterised by widespread bullying, delinquency and low morale among both staff and residents whilst others were relatively peaceful and friendly. These differences are explained by the way these homes were resourced, managed and run, thus providing lessons for the future. This accessible text provides

• a much-needed insight into the management of childrens homes and the impact on their residents
• perspectives from a large sample of children, parents, staff and social workers
• an examination of the effect on staff and residents of features such as the size of the home, staff ratios, the proportion of trained staff and the approach of the head

With the heart of an adoptive mother and the eye of a journalist, Lois Gilman navigates the often complicated but ultimately fulfilling world of adopting a child.

This practical, wise, and encouraging book contains all the information a couple or an individual needs to investigate adoption alternatives, arrange for and complete a successful adoption, and raise an adoptive family. Beginning with a broad overview of options for both domestic and foreign adoption, the author provides details about agencies, home studies, paperwork, and legal issues. Also covered are procedures for agency and independent adoptions as well as concerns about intercountry adoption, special-needs children, preparing for a child's arrival, and longer term questions about the impact of adoption on your family over the years.

This newly revised fourth edition features:

• more information on open adoption and creating the relationship with birth parents that's right for you and your child;

• the latest on financing an adoption, including loans, government subsidies, and tax credits;

• the best sources for pursuing an international adoption;

• new stories throughout from birth mothers, adoptive parents, and adopted children to illustrate adoption issues today, and a detailed bibliography for further reading;

• and completely updated listings of over a thousand domestic agencies, parent groups, information exchanges, and public service offices.

Joining New Families is based on a research study which followed 61 children who were placed, between 5 and 9 years old, with adoptive or permanent foster families. Most of the children had previously been maltreated. The study focused on the problems and strengths that these children brought to their new families; how the new families coped; and the factors associated with the placements becoming stable and secure. The authors provide a detailed presentation of the findings from this unique study and highlight the implications for policy and practice. Key factors examined include

• the children’s pre-placement experiences
• the quality of preparatory work with the children and families
• the characteristics of the new parents and their parenting style
• the children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties
• the development of relationships within the new family
• the type and quality of post-placement support

Going Missing presents important findings from the first major study of young people who go missing from residential and foster homes. By exploring the diverse reasons why young people go missing and what happens when they do, the authors highlight the impact both of individual motivations and of residential and foster care contexts on the patterns associated with going missing. The authors address the serious risks that young people may encounter while missing, including the dangers associated with sleeping rough, offending, sexual exploitation, and substance misuse. The longer term implications of repeatedly going missing for the structure of young peoples lives are also explored. In outlining the strengths and limits of the different professional responses to young people who go missing, the authors present an analysis of the difficult professional task of managing risk for different groups of people. Conclusions drawn from this unique study are considered in terms of their wider implications for

• developing preventive services for teenagers
• the nature of residential and foster care provision
• inter-agency approaches to supporting young people

The process of interviewing a child can be a daunting experience for both the child and the interviewer. Interviewing Children offers practical advice for understanding the linguistic abilities of children and for applying that knowledge effectively to the evidentiary interview. Drawing on real transcript data and data from language games with presumed non-abused children, the authors examine each stage of the phased interview as outlined, in the Memorandum of Good Practice. Incorporating case studies, checklists, and self-assessment sheets, Interviewing Children provides step-by-step guidelines for

• establishing an effective interview setting
• building rapport with the child
• overcoming the difficulties that can arise when eliciting free narrative accounts
• understanding which question types to use and which to avoid
• identifying and using age-appropriate language
• interviewing disabled children and those who are bilingual or use a minority language

"Making Research Work" demonstrates how research can be fostered and applied more effectively to child care policy and practice. Drawing on a wealth of experience, current literature and government documents, the contributors present a comprehensive discussion of key contemporary issues relating to child care research. Recommendations are given for recognising and responding to both the fundamental and the specialist issues that challenge the various stages of the research process. Practical guidelines are given for

• undertaking single-case design research
• appraising current child care literature and official statistics
• accessing hidden or hard-to-reach populations
• dissemination
• establishing a research centre
• preparing a research proposal to submit to a funding body
• commissioning and funding research

Childhood is ideally a time of safety, marked by freedom from the economic, sexual, and political demands that later become part of adult life. For many children, however, particularly those who live in our inner cities, childhood is increasingly a time of danger. In the urban war zones of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., children grow up with firsthand knowledge of terror and violence. This book examines the threat to childhood development posed by living amid chronic community violence. Most importantly, it shows caregiving adults such as teachers, psychologists, social workers, and counselors how they can work together to help children while they are still children—before they become angry, aggressive adults.

This timely new book presents the concepts, context, and applications of a problem-solving approach to group work with children and adolescents. This comprehensive new volume covers it all. It addresses issues associated with assessment, problem recognition, planning and composition, leadership, and activities in a wide range of settings when working with children and adolescents. Phases of group work, practice guidelines, and evaluation are also thoroughly considered. Significant applications focus on group work with children and adolescents from families in which divorce has occurred; group work to improve peer relationships and social competence; group work with children and adolescents who are at risk for developing mental health and substance abuse disorders; and school performance group work. To help illustrate key points, a lively case example is provided for each application. A practical volume for practitioners in the helping professions, Group Work with Children and Adolescents will be highly valuable to those practicing in the fields of social work, human services, clinical and counseling psychology, and psychiatric nursing.

An indispensable resource to those families considering or affected by adoption, this book takes an informed look at adoption from a Jewish perspective and will prepare readers for the many unforeseen challenges that may arise.

Now in its third edition, this resource provides a detailed guide for adoptees and their birthparents. It offers a wealth of ideas, advice, resources, and encouragement to those considering embarking on their own journey of discovery. Drawing from personal experiences as well as extensive research, author Jane Askin presents creative ways to overcome obstacles and attack problems that occur during the search process. She presents realistic choices and alternatives, and their consequences for both parties. New to this edition is coverage of the advances that have been made in the area of electronic search methods for adoptees and birthparents, and how even the most novice computer users can assess them. State-by-state listings of adoption laws have also been updated, as have the addresses and contact information for the various groups, organizations and other resources featured in the book.

Schooling is so much a part of our culture that we have come to believe that education cannot exist without it. Yet the number of children being educated at home is rapidly growing . Moreover, the number looks set to grow further, with more people opting to work from home coupled with the great increase in educational software and knowledge available via the internet. This new book covers the issues involved in home education. Most importantly, Alan Thomas conducts a systematic inquiry in to how parents actually go about teaching their children at home. Based on the experiences of a hundred home educating families, the book assesses parents' motives and the ways in which they are forced to adapt conventional methods of education and learning, often challenging basic assumptions about the nature of children's learning. This book's findings, including an extended focus on informal learning, not only permit a long overdue assessment of educating in the home but also have tremendous implications for wider educational thinking. Dr Alan Thomas is Visiting Fellow at the University of London Institute of Education and was formerly at the Northern Territory University, Darwin, Australia. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Updated for a New Paperback Edition, the Definitive Guide to Open Adoption, by the founder of the Open Adoption Movement The exploding popularity of open adoption today underscores what adopting parents, birthparents, and many adoption experts now maintain: Open adoption is the healthiest, most humane, and fastest method available. It's better for the birthmother, because she (not lawyers or social workers) decides the future of her child. It's better for children, because they're raised without the shroud of secrecy and stigma that accompanies most closed adoptions. And it's better for adopting parents, because it dramatically shortens the time it takes to obtain a baby, from an average of seven years to under one year. As director of one of the country's leading open adoption agencies and founder of the first nationwide network of open adoption organizations, Bruce Rappaport has facilitated thousands of successful open adoptions and acquired an intimate understanding of the most common and heartfelt concerns of parents seeking to adopt a baby. Interweaving personal stories and real-life experiences of adopting parents, birthparents, and adopted children, he answers the questions clients most frequently ask:

• What is an open adoption? How does it differ from traditional adoption?
• Will I ever feel like a real parent if my child's biological mother knows I'm raising her child? Will she interfere?
• What if the birthmother changes her mind after the adoption?
• How long will it take to get a child?

"Working in Childrens Homes" is one of an important series of books on residential care based on research sponsored by the Department of Health. This book draws on extensive research conducted over a three-year period. The authors address the challenges and complexities facing those who work with and in childrens homes. On the basis of interviews and discussions with heads of homes and staff groups, the authors explore the tasks which face staff groups, the rationale for their procedures, their sources of stresses and rewards, and the everyday ups and downs characteristic of residential care. Key tasks are discussed in depth, such as working with individual children, the mix of young people, managers and others in their own organisation, and the wider networks surrounding the home and the child. Characteristics of good practice are named, and factors which facilitate good practice and good outcomes are identified. Valuable recommendations are made for

• implementing and modifying procedures to improve working practices
• staff selection and training
• support required by staff groups
• procedures and communication channels in the larger organisation and surrounding networks

This book presents a wholly new perspective on the Child Support Agency. The authors were granted privileged access to the CSA's own staff and were thus able to monitor case conduct from both the Agency and the client perspective. In a gripping analysis they compare the accounts of former husbands and wives with those of their respective legal advisers,and, critically, they incorporate the experience and views of the beleaguered CSA staff who attempted to calculate and enforce child maintenance obligations in those same cases. The media picture of the misery visited upon 'absent fathers' is borne out in part, but even more striking is the authors' account of a catastrophic administrative failure which led to the abandonment of many of the basic tenets of administrative justice. The reasons do not lie in the perceived unfairness of the formula but rather in the failure of those drafting the Child Support legislation to appreciate the impact of such change upon the rest of our hugely complex benefit structure. Their failure to grasp that the problems of inadequate disclosure and ineffective enforcement - with which courts had grappled for decades - could not be tackled effectively by a distant bureaucracy.

Parenting is attracting more professional and political attention now than ever before. More and more parents need the support of others to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to choose what would be best for their children. A variety of professionals are often involved in contributing to the assessment of parenting and/or setting up programmes for enhancing it. This important guide provides practical information for setting up assessment and parenting programmes for a range of professionals, dealing with parenting issues in historical, socio-economic, gender and ethnic contexts. In this comprehensive book, a team of multi-disciplinary experts offers practical solutions to a variety of challenges faced by parents, and professionals devoted to helping the parents. The chapters explore parenting in relation to common, specific problems such as, hyperactivity in children, behaviour problems, learning difficulties, and stepfamily situations. Enhancing Parenting Skills is essential reading for a range of professionals, including health visitors, social workers, psychologists, probation officers, education welfare officers, teachers, general practitioners and paediatricians. It is also a useful text for students on professional courses such as Social Work, Family Therapy, and Family and Education.

With major changes in the age and character of children being adopted, the issues surrounding adoption have grown in complexity.  As increasing numbers of older children and children with histories of abuse, neglect and rejection are being placed for adoption, their developmental needs and the demands they make on parents and post-adoption services is considerable.

David Howe's authoritative book explores and explains current understandings of adopted children's social, behavioural and personality development.  It analyses the wide range of research and theoretical perspectives available on adoption and identities the major patterns and theories arising. The book introduces the reader to the full range of knowledge and understanding on the development of adopted children. Case examples and illustrations are used throughout to give an immediate and lively feel to the information presented.

Professionals must increasingly focus on the importance of family involvement in making decisions about the welfare of a child who is abused or needing care. Family Group Conferences has evolved as a positive means to encourage good links between these children and their families, and to help children within the family environment----instead of taking the children out of their homes. This book assists professionals to put the planning and theory of these conferences into practice. It examines the context, origins and development of the conferences, using the research and experiences of social services. It looks at the interaction between the primary carer and the professional and the role of these conferences in relation to specific problems and situations, such as domestic violence. The book offers views from families, social workers and other professionals on the practicalities of Family Group conferences, how they are managed in practice, and their outcomes. Finally, the book includes examples from real--life family conferences.

An overview of the key issues facing the Jamaican child of the nineties. Crawford-Brown confronts the problems of Jamaican children with a view to sensitizing professionals and the public to these problems. This work provides a basis for analysing some of these problems and seeks to examine their programmatic and policy implications, particularly in relation to the improvement of systems of social service delivery. Who Will Save Our Children? is appropriate for professionals working with children, particularly teachers, social workers and guidance counsellors, but it is also geared towards parents, to help them understand their own situations and responses in terms of Jamaican society.

Foreign adoption is an often tricky, sometimes treacherous venture that is steadily gaining in popularity. Myra Alperson realizes that families pursuing this avenue of adoption need all the help they can get-and she fits it all into this handy guide.

Is your child afraid?

There are many traumatic experiences that cause a child to become scared—from divorce to the death of a loved one, from natural disasters to abuse. Even a disturbing news event that a child only sees on television or hears about but does not experience, such as the Oklahoma City bombing or the classroom massacre in Scotland, can make a child fearful or sad. No matter what causes the situation, childhood trauma is common and should be dealt with quickly and effectively.

Dr. Barbara Brooks, a psychologist who has successfully helped kids through all types of traumatic situations, provides you with the knowledge you need to put the child you love back on the path to a full and happy life. Kids don't always know how to react to feelings of distress. If these scared feelings are not expressed in a positive way, they can surface later in life when dealing with them becomes more difficult.

Here are detailed instructions, based on professional techniques, to encourage kids of any age—from toddler to teenager—to reveal their feelings through words, drawings, and role playing with step-by-step advice for reassuring them and helping them let go of their fear.

During the 1980s, the issue of child support emerged on the national agenda. Federal and state governments in the United States focused on the private obligations of parents to support their children, strengthening existing child support laws and establishing new ones. In this book, Andrea H. Beller and John W. Graham discuss what went right and what went wrong with child support payments during this period, investigating the socioeconomic and legal factors that determined child support awards and receipts, documenting why few gains were made in child support overall during the 1980s, and offering policy recommendations for the future. Analyzing Census Bureau data on child support awards and receipts beginning in 1979, Beller and Graham find that there were some minor improvements in the system and that these were due to changes in the legal and social environment surrounding child support. However, say the authors, many problems persist: the real value of child support awards and receipts has declined sharply, and black and never-married mothers, despite making some gains, continue to fare worse in the process than do non-black and previously married mothers. The authors evaluate the effectiveness of new federally mandated child support enforcement techniques and guidelines by focusing on how such laws worked in states that had them prior to the federal mandate. They also look for the first time at the indirect consequences of child support, showing how it affects mothers' decisions about work, welfare, and remarriage and their children's decisions about continuing their education.

Focusing on good working practice in all aspects of conducting enquiries into alleged child abuse, this book takes a positive approach to improving relationships between the workers and the families involved. Each chapter concentrates on a specific issue, including topics such as gatekeeping, planning an enquiry, interviewing children, medical examinations, and recorded agreements. Practice, research, and procedures are examined critically, from a perspective which emphasises the importance of partnership with children and families. This book is essential reading for social services practitioners and managers, voluntary organisations and all concerned with the current debate about the role of enquiries into alleged child abuse and neglect. This book forms part of a re-examination of enquiries into alleged child abuse managed jointly by the National Institute for Social Work, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Parents Against INjustice.

Today nearly half of all people in the Middle East are under the age of fifteen. Yet little is known about the new generation of boys and girls who are growing up in a world vastly different from that of their parents, a generation who will be the leaders of tomorrow. This groundbreaking anthology is an attempt to look at the current situation of children by presenting materials by both Middle Eastern and Western scholars. Many of the works have been translated from Arabic, Persian, and French.

The forty-one pieces are organized into sections on the history of childhood, growing up, health, work, education, politics and war, and play and the arts. They are presented in many forms: essays in history and social science, poems, proverbs, lullabies, games, and short stories. Countries represented are Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel/West Bank, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

This book complements Elizabeth Fernea's earlier works, Women and the Family in the Middle East and Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak (coedited with Basima Bezirgan). Like them, it will be important reading for everyone interested in the Middle East and in women's and children's issues.

Filled with fascinating insights into the collective emotional life of inner-city kids, this book is also a highly original history of the erosion of urban community life since World War II.