A Review of Fathers' Accounts of Their Experiences of Parenting Children with Disabilities

Research on the effects on families of having a child with a disability has focused mainly on mothers or siblings with little attention being paid to fathers. While there is now a growing number of research studies and reviews regarding such fathers it is also important to assess fathers' own perceptions of their experiences. One source of fathers' perspectives are the published accounts by fathers of their experiences of parenting children with disabilities. This paper consists of a review of all eight such accounts which were located in the literature. Common themes which emerge from the review are discussed in the light of existing literature on the effects on family members. Finally the limitations of this review are discussed.