Living With Polio

Living with Polio

Polio was the most dreaded childhood disease of twentieth-century America. Every summer during the 1940s and 1950s, parents were terrorized by the thought that polio might cripple their children. They warned their children not to drink from public fountains, to avoid swimming pools, and to stay away from movie theaters and other crowded places. Whenever and wherever polio struck, hospitals filled with victims of the virus. Many experienced only temporary paralysis, but others faced a lifetime of disability. Living with Polio is the first book to focus primarily on the personal stories of the men and women who had acute polio and lived with its crippling consequences. Writing from personal experience, polio survivor Daniel J. Wilson shapes this impassioned book with the testimonials of more than one hundred polio victims, focusing on the years between 1930 and 1960. He traces the entire life experience of the survivors—from the alarming diagnosis all the way to the recent development of post-polio syndrome, a condition in which the symptoms of the disease may return two or three decades after they originally surfaced. Living with Polio follows every physical and emotional stage of the disease: the loneliness of long separations from family and friends suffered by hospitalized victims; the rehabilitation facilitieswhere survivors spent a full year or more painfully trying to regain the use of their paralyzed muscles; and then the return home, where they were faced with readjusting to school or work with the aid of braces, crutches, or wheelchairs while their families faced the difficult responsibilities of caring for and supporting a child or spouse with a disability. Poignant and gripping, Living with Polio is a compelling history of the enduring physical and psychological experience of polio straight from the rarely heard voices of its survivors.

Living with polio: the epidemic and its survivors

Disability Across the Developmental Life Span

" This is the only text to provide comprehensive coverage of human growth and development, a requirement mandated by the Council of Rehabilitation Education (CORE) for a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling and for Licensed Professional Counselor certification. Written by an eminent leader in the field of disability studies, this volume reflects a significant change in perceptions of individuals with disabilities from being defined foremost by their disability to being viewed as normal individuals with a disability. It provides an understanding of traditional human growth and development that will enhance the practice of disability counseling by enabling an understanding of a client's childhood and prior life experiences. The book begins with a focus on developmental theories and tasks, followed by a discussion of cultural and ethical considerations in human development. It considers the major theories of human development as they relate to people with and without disabilities, and career theories with a focus on the concept of choice. The book addresses specific developmental stages including a description of developmental tasks, risks, disability applications, specific disabilities common to a particular stage, and cultural and ethical issues, all supported by case examples. Key Features: Fulfills the required CORE mandated course on human growth and development and the disability experience Addresses disability across the lifespan in relation to developmental stages Authored by highly respected expert in disability studies "