Siblings Coping with Autism

[Guest guest]

Hello All.

My name is Charlotte Snowdon, and i am a final year psychology

student at Coventry university. I really hope you don't mind me

telling you all a bit about myself, and what i am currently up to. I

think some of you may well be interested. I have raised this subjects

with many parents and support groups before, and they have shown

imense interest. It is something close to many peoples hearts.

I am carrying out my independent research project at the moment. I am

focusing on the siblings of special needs children, predominatley

those with brothers and sisters who have Autism. I am looking at the

coping strategies they use to deal with problems that may arise in

their sibling relationship.

To do this, i am asking the siblings, between the ages of 7 and 18,

of children with Autism to fill in a brief questionnaire called

Kidcope. There is a version for siblings aged seven to twelve, and a

version for aged thirteen to eighteen.

I will of course asked for signed parental consent, and i would also

like to add that this research has bein approved by the Psychological

Ethics Comittee.

Unfortunatley, only those of the UK can participate, if you so wish.

I have decided to look at this issue for a number of reasons; firstly

becasue it is a very, very understudied area. Very little is

understood about the way siblings cope, and i feel, as well as they

do, that they are often overlooked when it comes to issue surrounding

their brother or sister with Autism. Secondly, there is no support

service for siblings of children with Autism in my area, as is the

same for many other areas. This is something i aim to change, and

upon graduating from university in june i hope to set up a support

service. Using the results gained from my research, i hope to be able

to run workshops, etc to help and advise siblings on effective

methods of coping. This is something i am very passionate about, and

hope many of you would like to help me with this.

So if any of you would like more information on my research, or would

like to help, then please contact me on snowdonc@....

If you decide to help me, a research pack will be posted out to you.

Included in this is a prepaid envelope so you can send the completed

questionnaire back to me in complete confidence and at no cost to

yourselves.

I do look forward to hearing from you all, and thank you for taking

the time to read this post.

Charlotte.