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Brothers and Sisters of Children with Special Needs:

Brothers and Sisters of Children with Special Needs:. Unusual Concerns; Unusual Opportunities Presenter: Don Meyer Director, Sibling Support Project. Why Brothers and Sisters are too important to ignore.

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Brothers and Sisters of Children with Special Needs:

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  1. Brothers and Sisters of Children with Special Needs: Unusual Concerns; Unusual Opportunities Presenter: Don Meyer Director, Sibling Support Project

  2. Why Brothers and Sisters are too important to ignore • A siblings experiences and feelings of having a brother or sister with special needs, parallel their parents experiences and feelings. • Brothers and sisters will most likely have the longest lasting relationship with their sibling, even longer than their parents. • Nobody spends more time, over the long run, with the sibling who has special needs, than their brother or sister. • No child, even in an inclusive classroom setting, will have a greater impact on a siblings social development than their typical brother and sister.

  3. Resources for Brothers and Sisters of children with special needs Sibling Support Project Don Meyer, Director • Sibshops—peer support workshop that focuses on peer to peer support for siblings of children with special needs. http://www.siblingsupport.org/sibshops/index_html • Sibnet—Listserve for adult siblings of people with special needs. http://www.siblingsupport.org/connect/the-sibnet-listserv

  4. Today’s Objectives: • Help parents, siblings and service providers learn about the concerns that siblings of children with disabilities experience • Learn what clinicians and siblings themselves have to say about specific issues • Discuss the implications for parents and service providers

  5. Siblings’ Unique Concerns

  6. Siblings Unique Opportunities

  7. How to minimize concerns &maximize opportunities • Provide siblings with age appropriate information. • Provide siblings with opportunities to meet other siblings of kids with special needs. • Encourage good communication with typically developing children. • Encourage parents to set aside special time to spend with the typically developing sibling.

  8. How to minimize concerns &maximize opportunities cont. • Learn more about life as a sibling. • Encourage parents to reassure their children by making plans for siblings future. • Remember that the single strongest factor affecting a siblings interpretation of disability is the parents’ interpretation of disability.

  9. Thank you Don Meyer, Director Sibling Support Project 206-297-6368 donmeyer@siblingsupport.org http://www.siblingsupport.org/

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