The Huhtanens are a military family who are rising to the challenges of their son's recent autism diagnosis. They have been trying to stay afloat, facing the steep learning curve of interpreting and understanding TRICARE regulations, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and biomedical options. In this article, the authors share their experience and…

Estate planners counseling families who have children with disabilities are increasingly confronted with planning dilemmas that mirror the social, financial, and societal issues presented by an aging population. It is not uncommon when discussing "special needs" planning with clients to discover that they are in their 70s or 80s and…

With a representative sample of U.S. children born in 2001, growth curve modeling was used to investigate the association between father-child involvement and the developmental status of the child. Three groups of children, which varied by timing of developmental delay diagnosis, were compared for father involvement trajectories. These groups of…

Within this article we will introduce some metaphors as they were developed and used by mothers and fathers we worked with: the traveller, the warrior, the builder of bridges, the discoverer, the trainer/teacher, the in-between-er, the manager...We will position these metaphors as tools parents are using in their confrontation with normalising…

"Helping Your Child Succeed in School" is a brochure that provides parents with information, tools and activities they can use in the home to help their child develop the skills critical to academic success. This brochure was drawn from the larger booklet in the "Helping Your Child" series, "Helping Your Child Succeed in School" (ED503162) which…

Viewing challenging behavior as the result of lagging skills (kids do well if they can) rather than as poor motivation (kids do well if they want to) has significant ramifications for how adults interact with kids with behavioral challenges and try to help them. A wide range of lagging skills can set the stage for challenging behavior. Challenging…

Families are often taken by complete surprise when they learn that they have or will have a child with special healthcare needs. Such occurrences, for the most part, are neither preventable nor expected. Immediately, the family is faced with major changes in their lives, their finances, and the long-term expectations of their child. In this…

In this article, the author offers tips to boost the self-esteem of a child with special needs. Rick Lavoie, renowned author, speaker and advocate for children with special needs, says that one of the ways to increase a child's self-esteem is to find "islands of competence" and focus on the child's natural abilities. All parents need to be…

The aim of this study is to find constructions of parental responsibility by analysing letters sent by readers to a newspaper on the topic of parenting and parental responsibility. The study takes a methodological approach, focusing on the meanings of responsibility and looking at different portrayals of parenthood. Three dimensions of…

The new idea of a "parenting contract", explicitly taking as its point of reference the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is meant primarily to protect children's rights, and specifically the right to a proper upbringing. The nature of the parent-child relationship is thus drawn into the discourse of rights and duties. Although…

Because of established links with attainment, the UK government has, over the last ten years, developed policies to improve school attendance. Legislation now makes school attendance a parental responsibility. In the small-scale study reported in this article, Anne Sheppard, manager of an Education Welfare Service Team in North Yorkshire,…

This brochure provides information about the values and skills that make up character and good citizenship and what parents can do to help their child develop strong character. It suggests activities that parents and school-aged children can do to put those values to work in their daily lives and tips for working with teachers and schools to…

A random sample of Canadian foster parents were asked about the importance of culture in fostering. In response to the question "What values, beliefs and traditions were you raised with and feel are important?," a total of 74 different responses were received. These responses were grouped together by foster parents and the groupings…

Early childhood education in Kenya serves the critical purpose of preparing young children for primary education. Notwithstanding the associated benefits for society as a whole, the government of Kenya is involved minimally. Indeed, parents are responsible for planning, developing and managing different early childhood programs. Consequently,…

In this article Jan Steutel's paper "Towards a sexual ethics for adolescence" is discussed. It is argued that his dichotomous conception of "child" versus "adult" unnecessarily limits his conception of "adolescence", with unfortunate consequences for the answers to his research questions. Steutel's treatment…