Family in focus : new perspectives on early childhood special education

This volume consists of articles which summarize both theoretical perspectives and research themes from the project "Multidisability, Family, and Childhood" which was carried out at the Department of Special Education in the University of Jyvaskyla from 1990 to 1993. All writers have participated in the project as consultants or researchers. The chapters cover a variety of topics on the theme of early childhood special education. Thomas Weisner and Ronald Gallimore (University of California, Los Angeles) introduce (Chapter 1) the central principles of ecocultural theory and discuss its applicability to practice. Dianne and Philip Ferguson (University of Oregon, Eugene) examine (Chapter 2) the features of family-professional collaboration. In Chapter 3, Marika Veisson, Aino Saar, and Ene Magi (Tallinn Pedagogical University, Tallinn) present preliminary results from their study on parents' needs in Estonia and support-organizations founded in the 1990's. Markku Leskinen and Jaana Juvonen present (Chapter 4) an attributional model in which parents' responsibility perceptions predict their child-focused emotions which then predict the level of adjustment. !iris Maki examines (Chapter 5) the problems in the assessment of children with severe disabilities and discusses the ecological approach's applicability to early intervention practices. Marjo-Riitta Mattus examines (Chapter 6) different strategies for empowering families by concentrating especially on the of question how an interview could be an intervention. The last set of articles concern families of small premature infants and their development. Maija Virpiranta-Salo discusses (Chapter 7) the development of parenthood in parents whose family-life starts with special circumstances. Annikki Riitesuo provides (Chapter 8) a literature review about speech and language problems in prematurely-born children. Finally, Tuula Laukkanen discusses (Chapter 9) parentprofessional communication in a health care context