The involvement and perception of siblings of children with special needs

Abstract

Introduction: The family is understood as a system of dynamic relationships, the functioning of which changes as a result of any change between one of its members. According to family-centered practices in early intervention, professionals should also be aware of the fraternal subsystem and therefore this study aimed to know the involvement profile and perception of siblings of children with Special Needs (SN)., The Sibling Needs and Involvement Profile (SNIP) questionnaire was applied to a set of 38 siblings of children with SN in order to evaluate the domains of Awareness, Feelings, Fun, Help and Advocacy of the relationship between siblings. The results showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.929 thus giving good questionnaire reliability values. After statistical analysis, all dimensions present in SNIP had a mean score below 3 corresponding to more positive results. The Awareness dimension was where the values were lower with respect to the average score meaning that the siblings of children with SN feel that they are not informed about the child's pathology / developmental disorder; However, in relation to the Feelings dimension, the average was higher. Significant differences were presented in the Feelings and Fun dimensions when comparing these differences between older and younger siblings and the scores that are more positive are found with the older siblings. Studies like this one seem to show that the fraternal subsystem should also be a concern of early intervention professionals.