Abstract
This article is the product of a review of historical-critical literature that analyzes the global historical events during the 20th century that made the emergence and consolidation of the medical rehabilitation professions possible and an examination of the ways in which these professions approach childhood. The analysis of and reflections upon the reviewed documents are outlined below according to three theoretical tensions: 1) the child of today and the adult of tomorrow, 2) the meaning of habilitation-rehabilitation, and 3) the positioning of the subject in society. To account for the breadth of these topics, the text is divided into two sections: the first covers the first half of the 20th century, the period between the wars and the emergence of [re]habilitation, and the second covers the second half of the 20th century through the present, a period of political organization and technological advances. In the contemporary era, these views of [re]habilitation are confronted by the overwhelming reality of historical conceptions of childhood. The realities that children face today are diverse and complex; therefore, it is necessary to rethink the normalizing view of childhood that was instituted in the 20th century.
Physical and rehabilitation medicine; Disability; Speech; language; and hearing sciences; Occupational therapy; Physical therapy
