Support Needs and Available Resources for School-Aged Siblings of Children With Disabilities: A Mixed Methods Study.
Linda K M Veerman, Agnes M Willemen, Suzanne D M Derks and 2 others
PMID 41612911WHAT IT FOUND
School-aged siblings of children with disabilities want emotional support, practical solutions to sibling aggression, and peer contact, primarily from parents.
They did not view teachers as support sources. Available online resources are fragmented, mostly generic, and rarely address these specific needs.
Key findings
01Siblings identified five main challenges: understanding their sibling, disruptive behaviour, restricted family activities, judgement from others, and negative emotions.
02Siblings sought social-emotional support, immediate practical help, information, skills training, quality time, and peer contact, with parents being the preferred source of support.
03Most care organisation websites lacked sibling-specific resources, and available online support was often generic, infrequent, or did not address skills training for managing sibling behaviour.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The interview sample was small (13 children) and only two had a sibling with visual impairment without intellectual disability, limiting generalisability to that specific group. The resource review only included online sources, potentially missing services not advertised digitally. The study assessed if themes were mentioned in resources, not the quality or effectiveness of the support provided. Researchers were Dutch and less familiar with the Belgian care system, which may have affected resource identification.
Declared interests
Funded by ZonMw. Authors declared a conflict of interest: they developed a sibling intervention ('Broodles') included in the review, though it is free of cost.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that because support resources exist online, they are accessible or effective for siblings. Most are generic, infrequent, or fail to address specific needs like managing aggressive behaviour or understanding the disability.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →