An after-school program that is designed to empower siblings of young children with special needs. This after-school program is a playgroup where facilitators coach siblings to play strategically with their brother or sisters who have disabilities in order to promote development in social, emotional, communication, cognitive and motor skills. The target population is family of diverse background who is in a low income bracket.

The rationales behind this playgroup are the following:
 Many minority families’ child rearing practice is very collective and cohesive. Siblings and extended family members are usually involved in raising younger family members.
 Many parents from a low socioeconomic status work multiple shifts and leave older siblings to take care of the younger ones.
 The siblings without special needs often feel left out because the parents spend more time with their siblings with disabilities.
 Many siblings feel pressured from this responsibility partly because they do not have the knowledge of how to care for a child.
 Providing the know-how in an interactive way in playgroup through a natural routine such as play is effective. It is empowering and economically efficient.

Problem

I will implement this type of playgroup in May for families whose members have autism at The Autism Program in Champaign, Illinois. The program will most likely attract parents and children who are members of the Autism Program and of the Autism Network in Champaign. If this is successful, I will try to reach people from the Champagin Down Syndrome Network. I plan this playgroup to be as inclusive as possible, meaning I would like to have children of more than one types of special needs in the playgroup. The challenge is that some siblings take care of their special needs siblings because they feel that this is the responsibility they need to step up to. Others want to get as far away from this “task” as possible because of the social stigma associated with each label of disability, whether it would be Down syndrome, autism, or learning disabilities. Regardless of the reasons, I believe that disability is in a dire need of branding. It needs to be perceived as cool. I do not want people to feel that disability is something acceptable, rather it should be something cool to build more positive attitude from the general public. Consequently, I need a strategy that helps shape people’s attitudes towards individuals with special needs before I spread the words about sibling playgroup in the community.

Example

What it is usually like in playgroup is parents will take the leading role in learning how to play with children with autism and the siblings only shadow the parents and imitate what the parents do. This sibling-focused playgroup will place responsibility on siblings. They will learn how to have fun with their siblings in any daily routines at home. The curriculum for siblings squad is based on the Parent Interacting With Infant (PIWI) philosophy in which facilitators focus on promoting the interactions between parent and child. However, this curriculum must be adapted to fit the needs of siblings, instead of parents. Simply put, this playgroup will be a two-hour session where participants engage in recreational activities and learn from the facilitators about strategies to engage in play with special needs siblings to promote development across domains (social, emotional, motor, cognitive, and language).