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Understanding the Siblings of Understanding the Siblings of Children With DisabilitiesChildren With Disabilities
Concerns IdentifiedConcerns Identified
• Resentment
• Embarrassment
• Isolation
• Pressure
• Burden
• Guilt
• Confusion
• Fear
• Anger
• Jealousy
Difficulties ExperiencedDifficulties Experienced
• Having their sleep disturbed and feeling tired at school.
• Finding it hard to complete homework.
• Being embarrassed about their sibling’s behavior in public.
• Being teased or bullied at school.
Questions Siblings AskQuestions Siblings Ask
• What is the cause of the disability?• Who are the people who work for us?• Does my sibling have the same feelings I do?• What will happen in the future?
About their sibling:
Questions Siblings AskQuestions Siblings Ask
• What are my parents expectations?
• How do I talk to my parents about my sibling?
• Why don’t my parents spend more time with me?
• What can I do to help/Why do I always have to help?
About their parents:
Questions Siblings AskQuestions Siblings Ask
• How do I explain my sibling to my friends?
• Why do kids always tease me?
About their friends:
About themselves:
• How should I feel about my sibling?
• Why am I different than my sibling?
Questions Siblings AskQuestions Siblings Ask
• Will I be responsible for my sibling when my parents die?
• Does the presence of a disability affect my chances for having healthy children?
About adulthood:
About the community:
• What happens in special education classes?
• Will people accept him?
Literature ReviewLiterature Review
TBI
• Feel they have become more mature, enriched, and assertive after a sibling experiences a brain injury.
• Anger, frustration, resentment, and guilt have also been reported.
• 83% of children living with a sibling that has a brain injury experienced clinically significant levels of stress.
Literature ReviewLiterature Review
• Statements about their sibling with autism indicated a decrease in negative statements and an increase in positive statements after behavior training.
Autism
Literature ReviewLiterature Review
• A direct prompting strategy was shown to increase interactions between children with disabilities and their typically developing siblings.
• Siblings of children with special needs are not described as an at-risk population.
Additional Findings
How Teachers Can HelpHow Teachers Can Help
• Reach out to these siblings.
• Provide opportunities to express their feelings.
• Encourage them to develop their own interests and identity.
• Educate other staff members.
• Host programs specifically for siblings.
Questions
Consider these two questions:
1. What are the family’s and your appropriate priorities for achieving family balance in carrying out family functions?
2. What cultural values and traditions influence these priorities?
Tasks
• Families have certain tasks to meet the needs of the family functions.
• These tasks often have cultural differences and expectations.
• Be aware of how the needs in each of eight categories are met for families.
• How does time enter into meeting family functions and what could schools do to address the time factor?
Categories of Family Functions:
1. Affection
2. Self-esteem
3. Spiritual
4. Economics
5. Daily care
6. Socialization
7. Recreation
8. Education
Steps to take to build a reliable alliance around each function
Consider:
• What can schools do to support families in the eight categories of family functions?
• How does a child with disabilities impact the family in each of the functions?
Family System a Multilayered Complexity
1. Every family is unique.2. Every family is an interactive system:
Anything that happens to one person reverberates throughout the whole family
3. Every family is engaged in a variety of functions designed to fulfill a number of needs
4. Family life cycle changes
Family Life Cycle Theory
• Seeks to explain how a family changes over time.
• Theory is that each family experiences certain predictable and stable stages.
• Transition-as the family moves from one stage to the next.
• Family has three life cycle stages (three generations)
Birth and Early Childhood
• Discovering and coming to terms with exceptionality
• Participation in early childhood services
• Impact of grief over the loss of the anticipated “normal” child
Childhood
• Developing a vision for the future
• Developing a perspective on the appropriateness of inclusion