No one sees them as people in need because the problems of the disabled child have been attended to, Rolland said. McGuire knows personally how all this can feel and what might help. We will be highlighting the normal kids because they are important. This isn't often done in the family. Conveying medical and genetic information about the disability is also crucial.
Some parents find it painful to talk about, so the healthy child stays poorly informed.
Some parents will even deny the disability to their other children. The medical information can offer a good way to introduce a friend to the disabled sibling. We'll give these kids a script if we can. But they've been thinking about it for two or three years already. A program for siblings of children with developmental disabilities sponsored by the Institute for Human Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.