Research Paper on:
'A place in the family: an historical interpretation of research on parental reactions to having a child with a disability' by Philip M. Ferguson Reviewed

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
child with a disability" which was published in the Fall, 2002, issue of the Journal of Special Education. In it, he discusses the ways in which social, cultural, and psychological  changes have occurred over the past century in terms of how a family reacts to having a child with a disability in it. He reviewed the research addressing the issue  and considers the various research orientations and conceptual frameworks that dominated thinking about families with disabled children in the 19th and 20th centuries. He goes on to identify new interpretations  that have evolved recently and the ways in which those interpretive frames have served to improve the relationships between families and schools serving special education students needs. Families with  a Disabled Child Ferguson introduces his topic by writing: "It is perhaps commonplace now to argue that a familys reactions to having a child with a disability are inescapably embedded  within a sociohistorical context" (pp. 124). After all, it is within the family that the majority of people form their first opinions and attitudes regarding what it means to be  a human being. Not surprisingly, families attitudes about disabilities have changed along with the social attitudes and belief systems of their particular place in time. The point Ferguson goes on  to make is that it is important to also consider the ways in which social attitudes and belief systems are reflected in the research that is done at any particular  point in history. It would seem only logical that the attitudes and ideas that have evolved about what family means in the 21st century is as different as the interpretations  of family which once saw Ozzie and Harriet and the kids as the perfect family to understanding that the Ozzie and the Osbournes are no less of a family. Ferguson