TY - JOUR T1 - Exploring diagnostic processes: social science perspectives JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 284 LP - 287 DO - 10.1136/adc.2004.052118 VL - 90 IS - 3 AU - J McLaughlin Y1 - 2005/03/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/90/3/284.abstract N2 - This review explores social science analyses of diagnosis of childhood neurological disabilities. The paper moves through three sections, which capture the historical and conceptual trends within the literature. The first focuses on work identifying the need to communicate effectively with parents when giving a diagnosis, the second explores the role parents can play as “partners” or contributors to diagnosis, and the final section goes further in exploring the social complexity of diagnoses in order to examine the embedded nature of social practices, power relations and hierarchies, and institutions in the diagnosis encounter. ER -