Caroline explains the effect of her son’s brain injury on his siblings.

Seth suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was only 8 months as a result of accident whilst in childcare. He is now 8 years old and as a result of the injury has cortical visual impairment, a left sided physical weakness as well as ongoing problems in the eight areas highlighted by the Child Brain Injury Trust  – Social Skills, Perception, Attention & Concentration, Fatigue, Executive Skills, Behaviour, Memory and Communication.

Seth has two younger siblings who are 6 and 4 years old so they have never known any different. Despite this they are very aware of the difficulties Seth has in the things he does and how he behaves. Because of their young ages it has been very difficult to get them to understand why Seth is the way he is. For us as parents and carer’s we have had to provide regular reinforcement and information about Seth; what happened to him as a baby, how it affects him and how difficult he can find things from day to day. The saying ‘he has a bumped brain’ is a common phrase we use alongside simple explanations. There are very limited resources available for such young children so we have relied on having regular simple conversations and trying to encourage them to put themselves in his shoes.

Seth’s six year old brother has found it the hardest to manage having a brother with a brain injury. It has had a large emotional impact on him and he has had to really struggle with his feelings of frustration, anger and even jealousy at times. This has had a massive impact on home and school life. He has really felt stranded in the middle between two siblings who have needed extra support and care, Seth due to his brain injury and his youngest sibling for being the baby brother. His understanding and empathy is increasing all the time but it has been a long journey and this will only continue.

Seth’s youngest brother is just starting to show his anger and frustration with his interactions with Seth. But he is also beginning to show some understanding and having his middle brother pave the way has really helped.

Seth’s siblings aren’t always able to access activities or events that other families may be able to because as a family we have to be very mindful of Seth’s needs and access to facilities and this is even more prominent if only one of us as parents are available. This can lead to upset and frustration from all but as a family we try our best to pre-empt these situations and adapt as best we can so they can enjoy as many activities and events.

Any kind of resource which could help Seth’s siblings understand more about brain injury and how it affects their brother would be marvellous and would just be something we could regularly go back to in order to help support them though the understanding of, what is to them, such a difficult concept to grasp.

This Christmas you can fund a resource to help siblings understand brain injury. Donate £5 now and buy a book here.