Even though it may seem distracting to have siblings in on a session, I love having siblings participating in sessions. Multiple kids can sometimes seem overwhelming. However, if you can make some of the children leaders and give them special responsibilities, it is absolutely amazing how helpful they can be. These leader siblings act like me and my coworkers when we aren't there. The leader siblings want to be teachers, they like applying the structure to the other siblings and enjoy being helpful. The last time I had a group session, I saw the twin prompt the oldest sibling to appropriately ask to share a toy!!!
Now you might think that if you don't have older children, you might not be able to take advantage of maintaining the lessons from the therapists. This is totally not the case. If you have younger children, you can teach your younger children all of the same things you are teaching your child that is receiving therapy. For instance, I've seen infants pick up some sign language. Sometimes the infants just want to participate in the activities.
Regardless of who in the family begins to imitate either the therapist or the sibling, the family will have more consistency with better sharing and turn taking skills and look to each other more often for learning.
