"We found that participating in a group with other young siblings and parents of children with disabilities was both educational, therapeutic, and fun," says lead author Debra Lobato, PhD, with the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center (BHCRC) and Brown Medical School.
The authors explain that within their families, well siblings may experience extra caregiver burden, differential treatment, and an imbalance of family resources. Outside their families, siblings may experience limited access to information about the child's condition, negative peer reactions, and disruptions in social activities.
"It's important to address the psychological and emotional needs of this group at an early stage," says Lobato. "Children spend more of their lifetimes with their siblings than they do with their parents. Siblings play a key role in one another's social and emotional development. They often sleep together in the same room, eat at the same table, and go to the same school. Our siblings are often the ones who most easily make us laugh and cry. So, when a child has a chronic illness or disability, brothers and sisters are likely to affect each other in both positive and negative ways."
Forty-three healthy siblings (ages 4 to7 years) of children with chronic illness or developmental disabilities and their parents participated in an intervention designed to address sibling challenges that cut across all ty
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Contact: Carol L. Vieira
cvieira1@lifespan.org
401-432-1328
Lifespan
10-Apr-2006