[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Siblings of Children with Disabilities
In the United States, over 5.8 million children have disabilities. Most have brothers and sisters. During their lives, these brothers and sisters will share many if not most of the same distress that parents of children with special needs experience, besides issues that are exclusively theirs. These concerns are familiar to their parents and have been recognized in the research and clinical literature. Among the concerns mentioned by authors, parents, and siblings themselves include: feelings of isolation, guilt, resentment, perceived pressure to achieve, increased care giving demands, and concerns about their role in their sibling's future.
A short list of opportunities observed by parents and brothers and sisters could include: the insights a sibling will have on the human condition: the maturity many brothers or sisters develop; the pride brothers and sisters report in their sibling's abilities; the loyalty brothers and sisters display toward their siblings and families; and the understanding many brothers and sisters have for their good health and own families.
Siblings of Children with Disabilities: Literature Review
The sibling bond is the most distinctive of all human relationships (Seltzer & Krauss, 1993), and is second only to that of the attachment between a parent and child (Gartner, Lipsky, & Turnbull, 1991). This special relationship lays the basis for sharing, companionship, loyalty, competition and emotional reciprocity (Powell & Gallagher, 1993). Even though the dynamics of the relationship may change over time, most brothers and sisters relate to each other as equals, and provide individual identity, companionship, and emotional support for one another during their lifetime together (Seltzer & Krauss, 1993). Major changes in society, such as family size, mobility, divorce, and longer life expectancies have increased the importance of sibling relationships (Powell & Gallagher, 1993). As a result, researchers have been forced to more strongly study the influence, which siblings have on one another......
