AMANDA HYNAN FINAL THESIS PDF

can be psychologically demoralising. They indicate communication with others can
help to ease feelings of loneliness. As shown in the literature review (section 2.2)
challenges with face-to-face communication situations can occur for people who use
AAC.
5.8.6. Resilience
Having the opportunity to use the internet has provided the young people within this
study with an important resource to experience resilience and risk. Resilience is a
controversial concept as will be demonstrated shortly when discussing the literature.
This is especially true in relation to disability where it risks being seen as an
individualistic attribute of success. The current participants reported being assertive in
relation to unkind online comments, blocking people from sharing material online,
reacting to an invasion of privacy by severing a social relationship, using Facebook to
privately discuss issues with staff, and accessing social media despite parental wishes.
By asking for equipment to extend their use of social media (for example, dongles or
cameras), or requesting to use equipment either collaboratively or via access
technology, they have demonstrated their awareness of the resources they wish to
access.
Much of the research into resilience has focused on its developmental nature and been
studied through childhood. Luthar, Cicchetti and Becker (2000) offer a critical
appraisal of theories relating to resilience by exploring how they have been
understood as exposure to adversity and adapting to the challenges during
developmental stages. They outline how resilience theories were formed, (citing
authors such as Anthony, ‘71; Garmezy ‘71, ‘74; Murphy & Moriarty, ‘76; Rutter,
‘79; Werner, Bierman & French, ‘71 and Werner & Smith, ‘82), showing much of the
early work was based within the schizophrenia literature and focused on the personal
characteristics of resilient children. As resilience research matured, three guiding
perspectives can be traced which all have at their core an appreciation of multiple,
rather than individualistic, levels of influence.
1. The first (Garmezy, 1985) considers the protective and vulnerability factors
that surround an at-risk child within three levels: (i) attributes of the individual
child, (ii) aspects of their families (iii) wider societal elements.
219