How to help and support the siblings in the family


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home | Siblings Issues

How to help and support the siblings in the family

Many parents who have a child with Aspergers are worried about the impact of this on their siblings. This is because a child with Aspergers can take up a significant amount of time each day for parents. So the concern is that the other siblings may "miss out" as well as the fact they may have to put up with a variety of difficult behaviors from the child with Aspergers.

In this section I offer guidance on how to help siblings cope and how you as a parent can do the best possible job for all the children; with the time and resources that you have available to them.

Relationship with younger brother is quite strained and usually results in very violent meltdowns, what can we do?
It happens every second of every day. Siblings fight. Some more than others, but at some point, they all do it. It can be very difficult to control, and when you add something like Asperger's Syndrome to the equation, things can get complicated. Asperger's is difficult for the parents to process, so why do we expect the children to handle things any better? . . . keep reading

What games are good for teaching my ASD son about relationships that maybe could involve his siblings too?
One of the great truths in life is that there is a teaching opportunity in every situation; there is something to learn from every teaching tool. Any good ABA therapist will tell you that you do . . . keep reading

My son has a lot of rage and hatred for his sibling. I am afraid he will seriously hurt his little brother. Why is he like this and what can I do to make things safer?
This is difficult to answer as you do not indicate if it is the child with Asperger's Syndrome who has the rage and hate or if it is the sibling of the child with Aspergers. I will assume that the child with Asperger's is the older one and he has the rage and hate for his little brother. This is very common with children who have Asperger's. They are focused on themselves. They experience sibling rivalry, but do not know what it is or how to handle it. Nor, do they care about handling it! They are angry and express the anger in very inappropriate ways. In this situation, your son needs ... . . . keep reading

What is the best way to help other family members understand my daughter's fears and anxieties?
One way to introduce family members to Asperger's Syndrome (AS) is to tell them that it is closely linked to anxiety disorders, and approximately one in every ten children has been diagnosed with some form of anxiety disorder. Out of this population, half of these children have been diagnosed with two different types of anxiety disorders or an additional disorder like AS. Researchers have found ... . . . keep reading

Can you give advice on what to tell the non-Asperger's kids? When will it be their turn (for attention)? Why does it seem like their needs always come after the needs of the AS kids?
Well, the needs of a child with a disability usually do take precedence over the needs of other family members. This is difficult for everyone. To keep the family stable and peaceful ... . . . keep reading