Sibling Relationships: Parent-Child Agreement and Contributions of Siblings With and Without ASD.

The team gave short surveys to parents and to the typically developing brothers or sisters of children with autism.

Each person rated how warm, close, or aggressive the sibling pair was.

The goal was to see if parents and kids describe the same relationship.

Siblings painted a rosier picture than moms and dads did.

The brothers and sisters said they showed more kindness and fun acts, yet they also admitted getting hit or teased.

Parents mostly noticed the conflict and missed much of the warmth.

Knott et al. (2007) watched real play for a year and saw autistic children make more friendly moves toward siblings over time. Their live counts back up the survey claim that siblings see plenty of good moments.

de Jonge et al. (2025) later asked only caregivers and found most rated the bond as "low engagement." The new large sample seems to clash with Stephens et al. (2018), but the difference is who spoke: the 2025 study left out the siblings’ own voices, so it missed the upbeat view kids often hold.

Torelli et al. (2023) built a game-like test that lets non-speaking autistic children show how much they like being with their brother or sister. That tool fits right under this paper’s umbrella: when views differ, use more than one reporter.

If you only ask parents, you risk planning goals around conflict and overlooking warmth. Grab the sibling’s side of the story with a quick rating scale or interview. Pair those answers with parent data to set balanced targets such as keeping the fun play while teaching safer ways to handle annoyance. A fuller picture leads to goals the whole family can trust.