In Chapter 4 of Parents and Families of Children with Disabilities, in regards to deepening my knowledge on how families cope with the stress of having a child with a disability, I never put into thought of how the siblings of the child dealt with stress.  My focus before was solely on the parents, but siblings are too a part of the family.  In what ways are they effected?  In what ways do they cope?  Are they as accepting or resilient of their brother/sister with the disability?  In spite of their heterogeneity, including characteristics, needs, interests, and capacity to be involved in supporting family members with special needs, members of a family unit are interrelated in myriad ways.  In this connection, events that affect one member of a family also impact others in the family (Carter & McGoldrich, 1980).  Siblings seemed to be overlooked, when they too are affected.  As a professionals, we must respond to the needs of the siblings of children with disabilities as well.  I've learned that one must provide information to the child about exceptionalities, including the disability that affects their brother/sister, observe and discuss with school personnel the educational program of siblings with a disability, including methods, procedures, curricula, and supports, and communicate with community professionals as well as other siblings of students with disabilities, and individualized opportunities and decision-making roles related to participating in the educational and home-life support of siblings with disabilites (Fiedler, Simpson, & Clark, 2007).

http://www.ccakids.com/Articles/Living%20With%20A%20Sibling%20Who%20Has%20A%20Disability.pdf
This article builds on these concepts in terms of living with a sibling with a disability.

Building upon my inquiries about how parents deal with the stress that comes along with having children with disabilities, I decided to research what causes the stress.  No parent wants to think about their child as being a burden, that the child is to blame for the stress.  What are these causes?  What do parents do deal with the stress?  How do they ever have time for themselves if they are constantly worrying about their child?
I found two videos, part 1 and part 2, of Caring for Children with Disabilities in Ohio: The Impact on Families.  This video discusses the various stressors that come with having a child with a disability.  Research has shown that parents that have children with disabilities experience higher levels of stress, lower employment opportunities, and the deminished rates of well being compared to other families.  The video explores the impact in terms of financial, emotional, and social well being.  I found these videos to be of much more interest due to its focus on just Ohio families.  To truly understand where parents are coming from, one will not learn from reading in a textbook.  These videos include actual parents who are speaking about their experiences.  As a future educator, I found this video to be very intriguing, giving me a better understanding of what parents are going through.  One father in this video quit his job so he could take care of his child to take him to and from school.  Another mother speaks about how when her child was being diagnosed the doctor told her there was no cure for her child and don't worry about it.  This mother felt as if she was on her own to research what her child was being diagnosed with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZa9tlH7Mw0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqjmmUaAPXg&feature=relmfu

Hearing from these parents made me think about the stress into greater depth.

After reading our textbook, I've learned that it is all about the support the families with children with disabilities are receiving that assists the families in coping with stress, building their knowledge, and raising their child.  It almost seems as if the child will not become successful if the child is not receiving support from their parents.  In my Kindergarten practicum, a student my mentor teacher had the previous year came to visit her classroom.  This student was diagnosed with mild Autism.  During our lunch, my mentor teacher began discussing with me how during the year she had that, they began noticing characteristics of Autism.  When discussing with fellow staff, they began thinking about developing an IEP, therefore it was up to her to begin getting the child's parents involved.  To her, she said this was the toughest thing she's ever had to do in her teaching career.  The parent didn't want to hear that her child had Autism, she didn't want to believe anything was wrong with her child.  As a teacher, how do you tell a parent that you are seeing beginning characteristics of Autism?  This is something I began thinking about because this is something that one day I may have to do as an educator. I found a very interesting article that discusses this very same issue.
http://www.disability-resource.com/Autism/how-do-i-tell-someone-their-child-has-autism.html
Although parents may suspect there is something developmentally wrong with their child, it may be something very hard for a parent to accept.  This article talks about how it is very important that one voices their concerns to the parents even though it may cause the parents to be upset.  The earlier the disability is diagnosed, the better, so the child can start receiving the accommodations they need in order to learn and be successful.  It also talks about how it is important to build one's as much knowledge as one can about the disability.  What if the parents are not involved with their child?  What if they want to avoid that their child has a disability and want to brush it off?

Within the world today, there are many disabilities, these disabilities can range from mild ADD to extreme Autism.  For educators that have never had experience with children with disabilities, how must one cope?  How does one relate to the child with the disability's family if one has never experienced it before?