More Fun With Sisters and Brothers Program

More Fun with Sisters and Brothers is a preventive intervention program that teaches young children a set of social and emotional competencies that will help them play and interact with their sisters and brothers in a fun and friendly manner. Over the course of four sessions, children learn a set of prosocial skills including: perspective-taking, conflict management, as well as learning to manage the range of emotions and challenging behaviors that often occur in sibling relationships. The skills taught in the program are geared toward 4- to 8-year-olds, and most children in this age group easily learn the basic steps that lead to harmonious sibling interaction. Program instruction is made enjoyable with the use of puppets, videos, and dramatic play that center on sibling issues. Learning is made fun with activity books, take-home bedtime stories, games and more. 

The More Fun With Sisters and Brothers Program was developed by Dr. Laurie Kramer, senior faculty in Human and Community Development and Associate Dean of Academic Programs in the College of ACES.  She is the founding Director of the Family Resiliency Center at the University of Illinois.

The More Fun With Sisters and Brothers Program design is based on empirical research findings and is the first formal program for enhancing the relationships of young siblings that has received empirical support. Rather than focusing on what children should not do (e.g., refrain from fighting), the More Fun With Sisters and Brothers Program is proactive and teaches children what to do— how to relate positively to one another. 

The More Fun With Sisters and Brothers Program has identified a number of effective methods for encouraging positive interactions in sibling relationships among young children. Skill-building approaches that directly involve children, as well as their parents, are the basis of the program curriculum, which emphasizes:

• Active learning that allows program participants to better identify their own emotions in order to regulate their behavior across the full spectrum of emotionally expressive behavior found in sibling relationships;
• Generalization of skills training to the home environment;
• A comprehensive parent engagement component designed to teach parents to become effective “emotion coaches” who can guide their children through the process of learning to regulate their own emotions and behaviors.
• Family home visits  offered to program participants that expressly focus on how children will practice the learned social skills and manage the situations that elicit conflict with their own siblings at home. Children practice program skills with their siblings while receiving coaching and immediate feedback from trained program staff who visit the home.
• Helping children learn how to get along, and have fun, with their sisters and brothers in the early stages of their social and emotional development can lead them to enjoy the potential life-long benefits related to successful relationships with their siblings in early childhood.

The More Fun With Sisters and Brothers Program is a 4-week program offered throughout the year and is free to participants. The program is located at the Family Resiliency Center in Doris Kelley Christopher Hall on the University of Illinois Urbana campus.