Involving siblings
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There is no doubt in our mind that Henry has been really blessed by having his two older sisters in his life and all their caring and constant companionship.
There is also no doubt in our mind that Henry’s diagnosis and the home programme has impacted on their lives and meant that our attention has been taken up considerably by Henry.
We also really feel that for all the sacrifices that the girls may have to make that it has also enhanced their lives and had a very positive effect on their personality’s and view of the world.
It is definitely not easy trying to balance the needs of your special & neuro typical children and it does lead you even further down the path of ‘guilt’ that I think all mothers experience.
We definitely have made mistakes and not handled things in maybe the right way but these are a few of the things that worked well for us that might help you:
- Including the girls in all aspects of the programme, including the outreaches and team meetings.
- Training them and giving them time with Henry in the playroom and including them in duals. (Our girls were some of his best facilitators!!)
- Giving them responsibility for creating things for team meetings, running the games or making things in preparation for the games in the playroom.
- The girls really enjoyed seeing all of the volunteers when they came out of the room and as they are all lovely people they really gave them time and made them feel special too.
- Trying to make time to do something with them on their own (this was the most difficult for us and something we are still working on making sure happens!)