I just have to share this. Today I took my daughter and niece to TotterOtterVille.  While my niece's mother was in line for pizza my daughter and niece were walking tot he book area.  An older girl looked at my nieve and said "aww poor little guy" and Kendall yelled "SHES NOT A POOR LITTLE GUYS SHE"S BIG!"  it was the cutest thing and not five mintues later another little girl came up to us and said "what's wrong with you, why do you have those braces?"  I was waiting for my niece to say something but as soft spoken as she is, she didn.t so my daugther of course spoke up and said, "She has spina bifida but can still play soccer and cheerlead!  They just help her stay still (balanced)."  --i was so proud of my daugther for standing up for my niece and I would like to think that if they were siblings it would be exactly the same.  Along with this topic I wonder, My sister in law once said, when she first found out she was pregnant again, "I dont know how I would deal if I had a mentally handicapped child, I see how people treat Liv and you can see her disability, how would people treat someone when they are disabled but you cannot physically tell?"  It really got me thinking.  And children are often more aware of their surroundings, how often would a sibling stand up for the other?  Have I myself ever made a remark about a disabled child even though I could tell (like aspbergers or autisim). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUZ2DVSt5Qk&feature=related -this is a good video explain a sib resource group

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1kbfaCuit4- nice video where a sister explain her brothers autisim and what is hard for her and what she also enjoys. she says the hardest thing is to hear what the other kids say about her brother.