Encompassing a wide range of perspectives on childhood impairment and its social implications, this text adopts a child-centred approach, including interviews with disabled young people and their own writing, to enable their voices to be heard. Pre-school and school age children describe their behaviour and feelings within their own families, substitute families, and residential homes. The book explores how such children can best be protected, and how their quality of life can be improved. Using the social model of disability which identifies the barriers to inclusion faced by disabled people, contributors give examples of progressive practice, and examine the aspirations of young disabled people, their friendships, and how they come to terms with adolescence and the transition to adulthood.