First Published in 1999. This book is designed to be useful to practitioners working with children and adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). It was born out of a need for a practically-based text book for participants on a course devoted to the study of PMLD but became a project to provide discussion of interest to anyone wishing to reflect on their work in this field. It is hoped that the nineteen chapters in this book will provide a broad ranging resource for practitioners who work with children and/or adults with PMLD in education, health, social care and voluntary settings and for those studying on advanced courses.

Penny Lacey is a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. She specialises in profound and multiple learning disabilities, running courses, conducting research and writing in this area; Carol Ouvry originally trained as an occupational therapist, but retrained as a teacher in the 1970s, working in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties.