Sibling Intervention Final

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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... ... middle of paper ... ...l & Physical Disabilities, 22(1), 83-100. doi:10.1007/s10882-009-9171-7 Schuntermann, P. (2007). The sibling experience: Growing up with a child who has pervasive developmental disorder or mental retardation. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 15(3), 93-108. doi:10.1080/10673220701432188 Sibshops. (2009). About Sibshops. Retrieved from http://www.siblingsupport.org/sibshops/index_html Taeyoung, K., & Horn, E. (2010). Sibling-implemented intervention for skill development with children with disabilities. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 30(2), 80-90. doi:10.1177/0271121409349146 Tekin, E., & Kircaali-Iftar, G. (2002). Comparison of the effectiveness and efficacy of two response prompting procedures delivered by sibling tutors. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disablilities, 37(3), 283-299.

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