Kids on the Autism Spectrum and Their Siblings

Abstract

Siblings play and enjoy together, and also have conflicts and quarrels. This way, they teach each other important things, mostly how to communicate with others. Kids on the autism spectrum have challenges in social communication, acquiring social skills, and applying them. Therefore, many researchers were interested in negative influences that children on the autism spectrum could have on the sibling relationship in the family. Other researchers were interested in the positive aspects of these relationships. In this paper, we review aspects unique to relationships between kids on the autism spectrum and their siblings.