Abstract

The Sibling Support Intervention Program (SSIP) was created specifically for siblings of children with autism to provide these children with the opportunity to voice their perspective and needs, and to empower them within their family dynamics by developing stronger and more understanding relationships within their family (e.g., D’Arcy et al., 2005; Dyson, 1998; Evans et al., 2001). Six children (3 in control group and 3 in experimental group) between 7- and 13-years-old participated in six weekly, two and a half hour sessions. The perceptions and experiences of the children and their parents of the SSIP were obtained through the use of semi-structured interviews, the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale (Piers & Herzberg, 2002), the Behavioural Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1988; 2004), as well as video-taped group observations. Descriptive findings suggest that children often benefitted from information about autism, and the strategies were deemed somewhat beneficial to sibling interactions and helped typically developing children to recognize their sibling’s abilities and limitations. In addition, children’s self-concept and their parents’ reports of internalizing and externalizing behaviors of the experimental group showed improvements from the pre-group session interview and the post-group session interviews. However, there were no consistent changes noted for the control group. The parents’ perceptions of family dynamics indicated little change between pre- and post-group.