Talking About Sex : Sexuality Education for Learners with Disabilities

Description

Key social and emotional milestones during adolescence are often directly related to the abilities to initiate and maintain intimate relationships, maintain physically maturing bodies, and manage personal sexuality. Most adolescents with developmental disabilities have particular difficulty expressing sexuality in satisfying ways, consequently facing issues such as limited intimate relationships, low self-esteem, increased social isolation, deregulated emotional maintenance, reduced sexual functioning, and limited sexual health. Appropriate sexual knowledge assists not only in achieving personal fulfillment, but protection from mistreatment, abuse, unplanned pregnancies, or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). It also works to help solve problems of loneliness and problems with self-esteem. This book will address this but also much more. Issues of physical and cognitive development will be discussed, including appropriate sexual development/urges and brain development, and innate similarities and differences of sexuality that could occur between people with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual or developmental disabilities, including the complexities of physical disabilities. The authors will also consider special considerations for group homes and recreational facilities, and specifically focus on concepts of ethics and models of consent (medical, legal, social, and educational), as well as how to deal with uncertainty. Preface vii Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction 1 2 We’re in This Together: Who Are the Educators? 13 3 The Birds and the Bees: Specific Skills and Teaching Strategies 25 4 We Can’t Hide: Pop Culture and Digital Media 37 5 The Birds and the Bees, Round 2: The Curriculum 53 6 No One Can Escape Puberty: Physical and Cognitive Development 69 7 What Does It All Mean?: LGBTQ+ 79 8 Special Considerations: Group Homes and Residential Facilities 93 9 Similarities and Differences: ASD and IDD 105 10 Just Say No (or Yes): Ethics 115 Index 127 About the Authors 131