Programs to Prepare Siblings for Future Roles to Support Their Brother or Sister with a Neurodevelopmental Disability: a Scoping Review

Abstract

Purpose of Review: To identify and map the characteristics and outcomes of programs designed to prepare siblings for their future roles with their sibling with a neurodevelopmental disability. Recent Findings: Existing programs to support siblings of individuals with a neurodevelopmental disability often focus on providing information about neurodevelopmental disabilities, creating a community for siblings to connect with each other, and connecting siblings to resources and services to support them in their roles. Some programs are offered to the whole family with specific sessions for siblings. While these program descriptions are provided in the literature, there is limited understanding about the impacts and outcomes of these programs on siblings of an individual with a neurodevelopmental disability. Summary: Fifty-eight articles (published between 1975 and 2020, with > 50% published since 2010) met the inclusion criteria, representing 54 sibling programs from 11 countries. Extracted data represented 1033 (553 females) sibling participants, between 4 and 67 years old. Twenty-seven programs focused on the outcome of knowledge acquisition for the siblings and thirty-one programs focused on the outcome of empowerment for the siblings to teach skills to their sibling with a neurodevelopmental disability. While there is an increasing number of programs for siblings of individuals with a neurodevelopmental disability in the past decade, there is a lack of siblings as co-developers or facilitators. Future research should consider the various roles that siblings can have in programs to address their needs.