9 / 12
[
VII
]
Therapy for young siblings is carried out using two main tools –
play therapy and parental guidance.
5. Awareness raising activities at the siblings’ educational
frameworks
The program for intervention in the siblings’ social environment
was developed following:
Requests from parents who asked for our help for siblings who
were struggling to find their place within their social frameworks,
and in particular at school.
Recognizing how much influence the social environment and
social stigmas have on the siblings’ quality of life, and the insight
that it is the social environment that should change.
The program includes several stages:
(1)Establishing trust between the sibling and the professional.
(2)Getting to know the sibling with disabilities and her educational
framework.
(3)Getting to know the sibling’s home room teacher and receiving
the school’s approval to carry out the program there.
(4)Developing together with the sibling and the home room
teacher an activity program for the class children.
(5)Carrying out the planned activity for the sibling’s class. The
activity usually consists of two to four sessions.
(6)A meeting between the sibling’s class and the class of the
sibling with disabilities for a joint experiential activity, preferably
at a park or a garden or a meeting at home between a group of
children from the sibling’s class and the special sibling.
(7)Concluding the activity - or expanding it to additional classes.
B. Solutions for parents on the issue of special
siblinghood
Most parents we meet have many doubts and worries around
several central issues:
How to explain the needs of the sibling with disabilities?