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This briefs offers a comprehensive view of the journey of grandparents of children with disabilities by employing a wide range of theoretical approaches such as intergenerational relationships, positive psychology, psychoanalytic views and models of stress. It presents a multidimensional view of grandparents, which begins with the general role of grandparents in the family and the transition to grandparenthood, as a major life event. The briefs moves on to discuss grandparents´ roles under unique circumstances such as illness or disability in the family and then deals with perspectives of parents of children with disabilities on the role of grandparents. Finally, it reviews attitudes of professionals toward grandparents and concludes with suggested intervention strategies for working with families on intergenerational relationships.

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Chapter 1. Grandparenthood: Grand Generativity; Shirley Ben Shlomo and Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari.- Chapter 2. Becoming a Grandparent: On Transitions and Transformations; Adi Noy and Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari.- Chapter 3. Being a Grandparent of a Child with a Disability; Liora Findler.- Chapter 4. Grandparents of Children with Disabilities: (Grand) Parents are Forever Parents; Liora Findler.- Chapter 5. Twice Special: Grandparents Who Raise Grandchildren with Disabilities; Adi Noy and Liora Findler.- Chapter 6. A Long Way to Go - From Awareness to Practice: Professionals´ Perceptions of Grandparents of Children with Disabilities; Liora Findler.

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Prof. Liora Findler is head of the Rehabilitation and Health Track at the Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and formerly headed Social Work services at the Child Development Center in Northern Israel. She specializes in families of children with disabilities and their intergenerational relations in particular, with an emphasis on positive outcomes and personal growth alongside the challenges and difficulties. Much of her research focuses on the unique experience of grandparents in these families, an area in which she is an internationally recognized expert.
Prof. Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari is a psychologist and professor at the Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. For the past fifteen years she has studied intergenerational relationships and personal growth following life transitions, such as the transitions to parenthood and grandparenthood. In the wake of her ground-breaking research, her scholarly publications were among the first to introduce the construct of personal growth into the discourse of life transitions. Her studies examine both deleterious and positive or constructive predispositions and outcomes within families coping with various stress-related events, and she has published extensively on these issues in international journals.

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