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Life Satisfaction for Children with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities

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Enhancing the Quality of Life of People with Intellectual Disabilities

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 41))

Abstract

The concepts of quality of life and life satisfaction are ubiquitous, complex and intertwined. But for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) – who by most measures have a very low quality of life – understanding, assessing and improving quality of life and life satisfaction are very problematic. The first author’s research, briefly described in this chapter, investigated the nature of life satisfaction for children with such disabilities. The primary findings are a grounded theory about the nature of life satisfaction for children with PIMD, and a grounded theory about how others can (best) come to know them. The authors believe that this life satisfaction can be discerned, that children with PIMD often experience a reasonable quality of life and that their life satisfaction and quality of life can be improved.

Tell me honestly, I challenge you – answer me: Imagine that you are charged with building the edifice of human destiny, the ultimate aim of which is to bring human happiness, to give them peace and contentment at last, but that in order to achieve this it is essential and unavoidable to torture just one little speck of creation, that same little child beating her chest with her little fists, and imagine that this edifice has been erected on her expiated tears. Would you agree to be the architect under those conditions? Tell me honestly! (from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, UK

    Gordon Lyons & Michele Cassebohm

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  1. Gordon Lyons
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  2. Michele Cassebohm
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Correspondence to Gordon Lyons .

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  1. , Department of Accounting and Finance, Monash University, PO Box 197, Caulfield East, 3145, Victoria, Australia

    Ralph Kober

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Lyons, G., Cassebohm, M. (2010). Life Satisfaction for Children with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities. In: Kober, R. (eds) Enhancing the Quality of Life of People with Intellectual Disabilities. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 41. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9650-0_12

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