Sibling Intervention Final

Sibling Intervention

Raising a child with a disability will have an impact, positive or negative, on the structure of a family system. Research concerning how various disabilities affect the family functions focuses primarily on the parents. Siblings are seldom included in the research, yet they can provide a stable, powerful developmental context for socioemotional development.

First Friends

Interactions between brothers and sisters provide children with their first socialization

experiences. Young children spend large proportions of their days with siblings as their play

partners and models. Children have opportunities to experience companionship, sharing, and

even rivalry. Siblings typically model a wide variety of behaviors, and serve as guides to the

world outside the reaches of family influence. They develop important skills that include

communication and social skills as they interact with and imitate each other in their daily

routines.

The Family System

The brother or sister of a child with a disability is affected in the same ways as their parents. They can exhibit the same emotional stages. They may experience negative feelings. They commonly feel deprived of parental time and attention. In order to accept their sibling, it is the parents’ attitudes and expectations that will determine the harmony, interactions, and ultimate relations of their children. Secure maternal attachment of the children increases the likelihood that the siblings will experience a non-antagonistic, authentic bond (Schuntermann, 2007). Many variables, such as age, gender, family size, culture, and the nature and severity of the disability affect the sibling relat...

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