To Play or Not to Play: Equitable Access to Afterschool Programs for Students With Disabilities

In this case, a child with a spinal cord injury was denied access to an afterschool care program that her nondisabled siblings were allowed to attend because she did not meet “eligibility requirements.” Specifically, the independent contractor who ran the program mandated that students be able to function in an environment with a student to teacher ratio of 15:1. District personnel initially claimed that the decision to deny admission was not their responsibility because the program was not administered by the schools, while the contractor claimed that they could not hire additional personnel without district approval.

Reciprocity and Social Capital in Sibling Relationships of People With Disabilities

Sibling relationships are some of the longest-lasting relationships people experience, providing ample opportunities to build connections across the life span. For siblings and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), these connections take on an increased significance as their families age and parents can no longer provide care. This article presents findings from a qualitative study that addresses the question, “How do siblings support each other after parents no longer can provide care to the person with IDD?” Findings in this study suggest that siblings with and without disabilities experience reciprocity as a transitive exchange, which occurs through the creation of social capital in their families and community, and that nondisabled siblings mobilize their social capital to provide support to their sibling after parents pass away. Implications for future research as well as policy and practice are discussed.

Conversational patterns of children with disabled and nondisabled siblings

ABSTRACTThis study examined the conversational patterns of older children with their younger siblings. The sample included 26 nondisabled, 10 hearing impaired, 14 Down syndrome, and 13 developmentally delayed preschool children and their older, nondisabled siblings. Significant differences were found between the nondisabled and the disabled children. The siblings of disabled children appeared to be less conversationally sensitive with their brothers and sisters than the siblings of nondisabled children. Significant differences were also observed between the different types of disabilities. Few significant differences were found in variables believed to be facilitative of language development in the younger child, and those that were found tended not to be in the expected direction.

Degree of Ambulatory Disability: Effects on Rural Siblings1 Social Development

This study examined the effects of degree of ambulatory disability on the social development of nondisabled siblings. Using the Schwirian Interview Schedule, the four areas of sibling social development examined were (a) general home responsibilities, (b) child care responsibilities, (c) independence, and (d) social activity. Twenty-two mothers of children with varying degrees of ambulatory disability and 33 nondisabled siblings from rural southeast Louisiana participated. The results yielded a significant difference only in siblings' social activity as reported by the mothers. Mothers' reports indicated this to be a sensitive issue, which suggested mothers make conscious efforts to avoid adverse effects on siblings' social development.

Siblings as Home Trainers: A Strategy for Teaching Domestic Skills to Children

This article presents an evaluation of the effectiveness of a sibling training procedure designed to prepare nonhandicapped siblings to teach domestic tasks to their younger siblings with handicaps. A multiple baseline design across three sibling pairs was used to assess (a) the acquisition and generalization of the use of an increased prompt sequence and social praise by the nondisabled siblings, (b) the level of independent skill performance by the siblings with handicaps, and (c) the maintenance of skills acquired by both the nonhandicapped child and the sibling with a disability in the absence of the instructor. Results indicated that the nonhandicapped siblings learned to use the prompt sequence proficiently and consistently; the use of social praise was not as consistent. The acquired skills generalized at levels above baseline when teaching a different task and were maintained at varying levels of proficiency in the absence of the instructor. Finally, the independent skill performance of the siblings with handicaps increased as a result of the training. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of the potential use of siblings as instructional agents for individuals with moderate handicaps.