"Nobody's just normal, you know": the social creation of developmental disability.
This paper examines the process through which early childhood developmental disability is socially created within a US public program called Early Intervention (EI). In doing so, the paper analyses and links the social creation of early childhood disability as a category at both the macro-level level and at the micro-level. The analysis is based on qualitative interview data from 31 parents and 19 professions involved in EI programs in Massachusetts. At the macro-level, the paper addresses how federal legislation and state regulations establish the boundary between normalcy and disability. At the micro-level, it analyses adults' social creation of developmental disability, measured as impairment. The paper also investigates the impairment categories that are produced by these processes, exposing the kinds of early childhood developmental delays that have been legislated as worthy of public intervention and discusses some implications of the disability determination process.
Leiter
Valerie
V
Department of Sociology, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02446, USA. valerie.leiter@simmons.edu
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities; D006078:Government Programs; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008404:Massachusetts; D012933:Social Identification