[...]... Burke and Cigno (1996), that most families welcome the offer of professional support 26 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES Siblings also need to be included in discussions between parents and professional representatives, as indeed, do children with disabilities Services are a basic requirement for the family, but families might need encouragement to secure them, and siblings, more often... neglect is a form of abuse in which a child is deprived of basic health and social needs If neglect is present as might be understood from Turney’s conception it relates to an absence or exclusion of care that parents should provide for their children In the case of a child 24 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES with disabilities the siblings may experience differential levels of care depending... social model of disability tends to be holistic, placing the individual in his or her context and focusing on the duty of others to effect change, so that the behaviour of others and the opportunities offered do not promote 20 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES a sense of disability as a condition to be discriminated against, ignored or avoided Impairments should not of themselves... basis without seeing ‘problems’ within the ownership of the individual The need is to revise the view that, although disability may exist at some level of physical 22 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES restriction and inequality, this should not be so A change in those attitudinal and social perceptions that equate disability with incapacity, inability or even as being ineffectual within... sisters who share part of their home lives with a sibling with disabilities This is not intended to diminish, in any sense, the needs of individuals with learning disabilities, but it is helpful for the initiation of an examination of the situation of siblings whose brothers or sisters are identified, diagnosed or labelled in some way as being disabled Parents may understand the needs of siblings as they... models of disability with which I am mainly concerned: the first is called the ‘medical’ model and the second, the ‘social’ model of disability It is important to understand these two models because they help to clarify differences in professional perceptions, although, it has to be said, models are just that: not the reality of experience, but a means 18 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES. ..10 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES to the experience of living with a disabled brother or sister, creating ‘disability by association’ Chapter 1 provides an introduction and a theoretical framework for analysis linking to the key concepts: inclusion, neglect, transitions and adjustments, children s rights and finding a role for the practitioner Models of disability are... simple way of determining the functional nature of decision-making within the family The locus of control The locus of control (Lefcourt 1976) may be used in cognitive-behavioural therapy (Burke 1998) It provides a framework for the assessment of any situation that requires understanding and some form of action I provided examples of its usefulness in the field of children with learning disabilities. .. Other models of grief reactions include Parkes (1975) and Worden (1991) All are concerned with individual reactions to bereavement as a significant 32 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES event, and it is suggested that, although all changes do not promote a bereavement reaction, the accumulation of stress resulting from home circumstances for a sibling of a brother or sister with a disability,... on the lives of siblings and on the family Clearly, the experience of disabled children should be positively reinforced by encounters with others, but this is not the experience of disabled children or of their siblings Positive experience should be the norm, but until attitudes are changed within the wider realms of society, the experience of disability discrimination within the context of childhood . y0 w1 h0" alt="" Brothers and Sisters of Children with Disabilities of related interest The Views and Experiences of Disabled Children and their Siblings A. equated with not being the disabled child of the family. Here, ‘difference’ is a subtle projection of the view 12 / BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES point