CONNORS, Clare and Kirsten STALKER, <b>THE VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES OF DISABLED CHILDREN AND THEIR SIBLINGS: A Positive Outlook</b>

CONNORS, Clare and Kirsten STALKER, THE VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES OF DISABLED CHILDREN AND THEIR SIBLINGS: A Positive Outlook. Independence, KY: Taylor & Francis/Routeledge, 2003, 187 pp., $24.95 softcover.This short book, set in Great Britain, looks at how children living with disability and their siblings feel about the disability and how it has changed or not changed their lives. It begins with a short glossary of key terms. The authors point out that ... .. disability is rooted in an unequal social relationship, the effects of which can manifest themselves as barriers-physical, social and emotional-restricting the lives of disabled people. [p. 103] Chapters include the policy and research background, methods and conducting the research, children negotiating day-to-day life at home and at school, services and professionals, brothers and sisters, and children's understanding of their disability. Also included with the book are references and a number of very helpful appendices showing which consent forms were provided for various age levels and for siblings to sign as well as a guide for questions used to elicit information from the disabled children and the siblings about family life, school life, and how to relate to professional providers.The authors wisely used qualitative research methods to approach this topic. Qualitative approaches are being more and more widely used in disability studies because they allow those being researched to be involved in all stages of the study, the approaches acknowledge them the experts and the researchers the learners, and qualitative approaches improve the quality of the research and the results when those who are disabled and their families are involved throughout the research process.The children in this study speak movingly of their relationship with their parents and with their siblings, as well as their classmates and with children and adults in the wider public. Much of what is described by disabled children, the ups and downs, the bullying, the closeness, would be the same for any sibling relationship. These researchers also found that the older the children became, the fewer activities there were for them to join; furthermore, as the children grew older, physical barriers to their activities and their interests became more apparent. Like children almost everywhere, these children reported enjoying life, being good at activities and having close family, sibling and friendships. While most sibling relationships were in the normal range and siblings got along well together, there were a few reports of bitter and sometimes violent relationships with sibs.On the negative side, they reported difficulties with socially imposed restrictions on their chosen activities. These included inaccessible buildings and transportation systems and a lack of appropriate support for communication. The children were quite positive about their experience with their teachers, who often function as an important parental figure. When they discussed their assistants and attendants, their feelings were much more complex and ambivalent, with attendants put into at least five categories, including the replaceable assistant, the assistant as mother or father, the professional assistant, the assistant as friend or buddy, and their ideal assistant. …

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