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‘The Other Child’: A Story About Growing Up With a Special Needs Sibling
Children’s Health Defense this week published a new edition of “The Other Child: The Exceptional Siblings of Special Needs Children” — a book about the gifts and challenges of being the elder sibling of a profoundly disabled child.
Linda Scotson’s first child, Lili, was born in 1976. Lili’s brother Doran came along two years later in the wake of their father’s premature death by suicide.
Doran was born healthy. But within days, he developed jaundice because his blood type was incompatible with his mother’s.
When he was rushed to the hospital, Doran began having seizures that injured his brain and caused athetoid cerebral palsy. The condition caused him to be deaf and blind — only temporarily, but at the time, his parents and doctors didn’t know that.
Doctors advised Linda to institutionalize Doran — or in British parlance, “send him into care.”
But Linda was ahead of her time — a warrior mom before the term was invented. She found controversial treatments that allowed Doran to function far better than anyone would ever have predicted.
Linda also found time to write a book about their experience: “Doran: Child of Courage,” published in 1985. It became an international bestseller and was translated into six languages.
In 1988, Linda wrote another book — “The Other Child: The Exceptional Siblings of Special Needs Children” — about Lili’s experiences, including the gifts and challenges of being the elder sibling of a profoundly disabled child whose needs were so great that Lili’s own needs tended to fade into the background.
With severe neurodevelopmental disorders now more common than ever, Children’s Health Defense this week released a new edition of “The Other Child: The Exceptional Siblings of Special Needs Children” for parents trying to navigate the parenting of both disabled children and their neurotypical siblings.
“The Other Child” provides insight into these siblings’ needs and offers strategies to fill them. It is also a call to society to better support the families who deal with such profound challenges.
Linda Scotson went on to formally study neurobiology, receiving a Ph.D. for her work on the connection between respiratory function and neuroplasticity, and developing innovative ways to improve them both.
At 79, alongside her daughter, Lili, she still treats clients at the Advance Centre at the University of Dublin, in Ireland, with her specialized breathing techniques and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
