Customer Reviews

Delicate Threads: Friendships Between Children with and Without Special Needs in Inclusive Settings

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"Delicate Threads" offers a conundrum for the reader. The artwork and testimonies pitch an impression that the author offers solutions and distills the wisdom of real-life experience. Moreover, the fact that this book does not focus on physical disabilities was not clearly articulated in the editorial reviews.

This book is more of a case study that details Dr. Straub's three-year study of seven pairs of children, a "normal" child and a developmentally disabled child. Despite the many interesting observations chronicled during this case study, the author too often, in my opinion, falls back on vague postulates such as "Between parental influences and all the complexities of cultural influences, understanding the influences on children's friendships can be an unpredictable process."

The author's conclusions are topical but often general, and the omission of children with physical disabilities---who often also have developmental disabilities placing them in double jeopardy for isolation---puzzles me.

Also, the striking lack of current research from the experts---most of the sources cited in this book are from the '80s and many are from the '70s---in the field proves again that the real experts are the parents of special needs children, and the wisdom of such parents (not just the comments from parents of the children in the case study) would have complimented and expanded the author's observations.

Despite such lapses, the author does address the topic with respect and sensitivity, noting that "It is the withdrawn, isolated child who is easily overlooked who becomes invisible." Her ideas for improving the social support for children with special needs are commendable but I suspect rarely employed in schools where the unruly rule and the disabled often languish.

I bought this book to use for my university dissertation on inclusive education. I found that it was an interesting and informative book and I ended up reading it just for the joy of it. She is perceptive about special needs and looks at special needs and inclusive eduaction from a novel angle. She aslo sheds insight on friendship as a whole by using her case studies of special needs and mainstream children.
A good book, highly recommended!