Effects of Autism on Sibling

It’s very common for an autistic child to have a sibling or more in their family, whether they’d be older or younger. Most of the time, there are bound to be struggles regarding the relationship between the autistic child and their non-autistic siblings. 

Such problems can include them not sharing the same sort of special interests as one and the autistic child preferring a solitary choice for activity time as opposed to the sibling(s) wanting to include them in their preferred activity of choice to build a relationship with the autistic sibling like they longed for.

With this continuing on, it can cause tensions between sibling relationships later on down the road in life due to the non-autistic sibling(s) may not being able to properly comprehend the autistic sibling’s condition. This in turn may cause the non-autistic sibling to despair and even build not only resentment towards the autistic sibling, but also trust issues for when the latter does want to genuinely socially bond with the former. 

Because of all this, the non-autistic sibling(s) might also take out their frustration from the whole situation not only on their other family and friends, but perhaps even themselves. 

In order to lessen the tension, the non-autistic sibling and autistic sibling could perhaps have a one-on-one conversation with each other to talk it out. The autistic sibling could explain in a professional and mature manner in how they perceive their world and what also causes them to not reciprocate the feelings for the same kind of passions/interests that their non-autistic sibling has.

The non-autistic sibling can also share their feelings in what it feels like to struggle in having an autistic sibling whom they truly do love deep down but cannot find solace within the issue.

My parents have always felt that it actually can be tougher on the non-autistic sibling because they tend to take on a parental role at a very young age. It can bring up situations that they may not have the answers at that point.

Hope is not lost for a strong bond between the siblings, despite one being autistic. It could take a ton of work but with enough love and and determination, everything will be alright for the siblings to have a true relationship. 

On a side note my dad took this picture and my mom said, “They better slow down or they’re gonna roll that thing.” Well, my brother actually did end up rolling the go-kart over. My brother left me hanging upside down to go get my parents and my mom was freaking out because she thought it was going to catch on fire. 

For my next post, I plan to do a video interview with my brother.

Thanks for reading and please continue to share.