Handbook of Children with Special Health Care Needs

Children with chronic conditions, developmental disorders, and birth defects represent a sizeable minority of American children--as many as one in five. Often their families have financial or other issues limiting their access to appropriate care, thus limiting their adult prospects as well. Compounding the problem, many valuable resources concerning this population are difficult to access although they may be critical to the researchers, practitioners, and policymakers creating standards for quality care and services. In response, the Handbook of Children with Special Health Care Needs assembles research, applied, and policy perspectives reflecting the range of children's problems requiring special services. Widely studied conditions (e.g., communication disorders, substance abuse) and those receiving lesser attention (e.g., tuberculosis) are covered, as are emerging ideas such as the "medical home" concept of continuity of care. Its interdisciplinary outlook makes the Handbook of Children with Special Health Care Needs a vital, forward-looking text for developmental psychologists, pediatricians, early childhood and special education researchers and practitioners, disability researchers, policymakers, and advocates, and providers for children with special health care needs.

David Hollar, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill. At UNC, he designs and analyzes educational research projects involving assessments of medical student and resident performances in simulated environments. He also performs epidemiological research on risk behaviors and diagnostic health conditions for persons with disabilities, using secondary longitudinal clinical and public health databases. He is an active member of the American Educational Research Association, the American Public Health Association (Disability Section), and is a member of the editorial board of the Maternal and Child Health Journal, published by Springer.