Table of Contents

List of Tables and Boxes     ix
Acknowledgements     x
List of Abbreviations     xi
Introduction     1
Introduction     3
Laying the foundations     4
Introducing disability     5
Locating recent past and current policies     7
Introductions: the parents and a research process     10
Organisation of the book     18
Mothering and Disability: The Social, Cultural and Political Spheres     21
'Natural' mothering     22
Mothering in context     27
Being human?     29
'Inclusive' education and exclusion     30
Experiencing disability     34
Introducing the conceptual: exclusion, denial and disappointment     36
Reflections     40
Mothering: Identification and Diagnosis of Impairment     41
'Loss' of the expected child: shock, denial and disappointment     42
Parental identification, emotional responses and labels     51
Professional diagnosis     59
Conclusions     64
Statementing and Partnership: Working Together?     66
The assessment and statementing process     67
A route to assessment: a familyproblem?     74
Legal dilemmas     81
Parents and 'partnership'     90
Conclusions     98
Experiencing a 'Special' Education     101
Parental hopes for mainstream education     102
Adverse reactions to the 'special' school     108
Experiences within the 'special' school     113
Experiencing exclusion: the child and the parent     119
Residential placement: respite or provision?     126
Conclusions     131
Living with Impairment     134
Exclusion and isolation as disabling     135
Support as a foundation of well-being     138
Depression, anxiety and mental health     148
Siblings and their impaired brother or sister     153
Professional parenting: the work involved     156
Conclusions     163
Discovering Difference, Experiencing Difficulty     165
Introduction     165
Within the social, cultural and political spheres     168
Problematic inclusive discourses and the 'disabled' family     173
...Finally     175
Bibliography     178
Index     184