The impact of mental handicap on other family members (siblings).

Abstract

The life experiences drawn from the interactions between the child and his brothers / sisters play an essential role in the formation of his personality and the construction of his identity; because they share several points and differentiate themselves in many others. The main hypothesis assumes that the presence of a mentally handicapped child has effects and can produce disorders in his siblings. And the following two secondary hypotheses: The presence of a mentally handicapped child leads to the appearance of disorders in cognitive knowledge and academic disorders in siblings. The presence of a mentally handicapped child leads to social and relational disorders in siblings. In order to study this, we took eight (08) families of mentally handicapped children admitted to the psycho pedagogical center for mentally handicapped children of Mostaganem, each family includes a group of 4 children maximum. The age of the cases studied ranges from 8 years to adulthood. We chose the clinical method, based on the case study, the FAT with parents and children, drawing of the family, observation and interview with parents and siblings. Our results are varied and show positive and other negative repercussions