Hello Kostas

There may be something relevant in these papers:

Cantwell, J., Muldoon, O., & Gallagher, S. (2015). The influence of self‐esteem and social support on the relationship between stigma and depressive symptomology in parents caring for children with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 59(10), 948-957.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277560866_The_influence_of_self-esteem_and_social_support_on_the_relationship_between_stigma_and_depressive_symptomology_in_parents_caring_for_children_with_intellectual_disabilities_Stigma_self-esteem_and_depr

Crook, N., Adams, M., Shorten, N., & Langdon, P. E. (2016). Does the Well‐Being of Individuals with Down Syndrome and Dementia Improve When Using Life Story Books and Rummage Boxes? A Randomized Single Case Series Experiment. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 29(1), 1-10.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jar.12151/full

I haven't a full text of this paper:

Reinders, N., Bryden, P. J., & Fletcher, P. C. (2015). Dancing with Down syndrome: a phenomenological case study. Research in Dance Education, 16(3), 291-307.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14647893.2015.1036018

Tsai, M. C. (2015). Art Therapy Interventions for Individuals with Down Syndrome (Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University).

https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/6530/Thesis--Mu-ChienTsai.pdf?sequence=1

Vey best wishes

Mary

Article The influence of self-esteem and social support on the relat...

Dear Professor Wilson, 

thank you very much!!

Kind regards

Kostas

Those are interesting papera about the topic

Best reguards

I cannot give you any articles, but I can give you 14 years of special education experience and a some names that helped me help all levels of the profoundly disabled to raise self esteem: Carl Rogers, Virgina Satir, Garry Landreth.  All of these individuals advocated to begin with the story of the individual through empathetic listening.  Landreth advocated that one way to promoted the story was through play therapy or art therapy.  By the readings of these three people, I was able to bring many of my downs, autism, and academically challenged students confidence level to where they were able to take state mandated tests and obtain part time employment.  80% of the students raised their test scores by 20% or more 63% met state standards.  All I did was follow the aforementioned theories in my classroom.  I still follow their examples in my general ed art classes.

I hope this helps.