Effects of childhood chronic illness on families.

This study examined the intellectual ability, academic performance, behavior, and social perceptions of children with a seizure disorder and their nonafflicted siblings. These data suggest the children are at risk for developmental lag and related problems. Impact of the illness on the family differentiated the sibling pair on many tasks and on parents' feelings towards their children. Although parents reported providing a normal environment for their children, the children reported their perceptions of the home environment to be further from the (population norm) than their parents. These results provide evidence for the whole family being affected by the chronic illness thus supporting social work's inherent holistic view. It also underscores the need for a secondary preventive approach with all families containing a child with a handicapping condition.