SALTstudent Report post Posted November 8, 2012 Hello everyone I hope I'm posting in the right place. I'm a final year Speech and Language Therapy student studying at De Montfort University. I was hoping that some parents would be able to help with my dissertation project on self esteem in Asperger's Syndrome. I'm lookng for some parents of KS4 (14-16yr old) children with Asperger's Syndrome to get the parent's perspective on self-esteem. The survey should only 5-10mins and your help would be so greatly appreciated! I'm on my final push now and finsihing in February and hoping to work with children with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome in the future so this piece of research has been fascinating and so has finding all these forums to beg for parent's participation!! I'm happy to keep you all updated on the results if you would like, and please feel free to private message me if you have any other questions or any suggestions. Here's the link to the survey: http://obsurvey.com/...37-c2ad000d3d91 Thank you all so much Huda xx P.S. Here's my information sheet for little bit more info and my contact details if you need them (sorry I don't know how to add an attachment): Information Sheet Who is/are the researcher(s)? This research is being conducted by a student at De Montfort University studying Speech and Language Therapy and is being supervised by Olivia Brown a lecturer at the university and qualified Speech and Language Therapist. Where can they be contacted? Huda Taher (the student) can be contacted through email at P09292649@dmu.ac.uk and Olivia Brown can be contacted through the address Division of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Hawthorn Building, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK What is the research study about? This research is investigating self perception in adolescents Asperger Syndrome (AS) in relation to mainstream and Special school. What will the participants have to do and how long will it take? As a participants you will have a questionnaire to fill out that will take 5-10 minutes to complete. What does the researcher expect the major outcomes from the research will be (e.g. publications, dissertations)? This research is part of the researchers’ dissertation for her undergraduate degree in Speech and Language Therapy. What will happen to the information collected? All information gathered will be collected anonymously and will only be seen by the researcher and supervisor and be kept in a safe and secure place. After the dissertation has been completed all the data collected will be destroyed. What degrees and kinds of confidentiality and anonymity will be required for this research? The data all collected anonymously, so anonymity will be maintained throughout the process. Participants will only be identified by a number. There is also full confidentiality as the questionnaire does not ask for information that could identify a participant. All participants have the right to withdraw at any time throughout the process and can feel free to contact Huda Taher or Olivia Brown at any time for more information or to withdraw from the study. Contact details Huda Taher: P09292649@dmu.ac.uk Olivia Brown: Olivia Brown Division of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Hawthorn Building The Gateway Leicester LE1 9BH UK Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nippy sweetie Report post Posted November 9, 2012 (edited) Are you also looking at the individual`s self esteem? Why just the parent`s perspective? Edited November 9, 2012 by nippy sweetie Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sa Skimrande Report post Posted November 9, 2012 What do parents of AS individuals know, they nothing other than what they are told, so your survey is useless. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SALTstudent Report post Posted November 10, 2012 Hello I'm looking into the parent's perspectives for a 2 reasons: 1st- so that I can get information about why a child may have moved school as some children may not know or remember when they were younger 2nd- to reduce bias becuase my in my research so far for this project I have found how some people may adapt their answers therefore skewing the results to either really high self-esteem or really low self-esteem. So I felt the best way around this was to ask parents as they have a slightly more objective view although as you rightly said Sa Skimrande how many teenagers are truly honest with their parents!!!! If I had more time I would ideally love to do a comparison between parents and children and do interviews to compare and use a self esteem questionnaire and ask my own question, however I've only got 6 months really do to this all in Maybe in the furture I'll do more research, but for now I'm doing a study with many limitations so lots of reflection and how I would improve it needed to be included, but I'm really hoping to get some interesting results. I hope that makes some sense, I'm still getting my head around all of it, so if it doesn't feel free to ask me some more questions xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sa Skimrande Report post Posted November 10, 2012 I still think asking the parents what they know is a waste of time, because they are not the AS person and where AS people struggle to put what they are feeling into words, there is no way an adult will get it and so what results you glean will be inaccurate in which case the research is useless as all it does is paint an inaccurate picture and I will tell you as an ignored adult AS person, we don't need any more inaccurate information out there, we need the truth and asking people that know AS people is not going to get at the truth. But then again the truth is being ignored by the NAS, so it won't really matter if any more erroneous information is created, as it seems those without AS are the authority on AS, not the people that actually struggle with it ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lyndalou Report post Posted November 10, 2012 Hi I think Sa Skimrande has a very valid point. Certainly as a teenager myself, due in part to the fear of being critcised (or believing I was being criticised) by my mother in particular I kept a lot of things to myself and as an adult I have grown accustomed to hiding many things just as a matter of course. When I plucked all my eyelashes out at the age of 12 due to experiencing a great deal of anxiety my mother found this very funny. I couldn't tell her why I'd done it but then I didn't understand why myself. At the same time, I ground my teeth until pieces broke off in my mouth and I was developing all manner of techniques to avoid my peers at school and out. My best friend controlled me by the threat of getting her other 'best' friend to physically abuse me (she didn't do it herself) if I passed a test at school and she felt I shouldn't have done better than her in it or I said something she didn't like. Did my mum notice that my self- esteem was rock bottom - No is the honest answer. She certainly didn't notice when I had developed depression by the age of 16 and that I wandered around in the dark crying and wishing I was dead.... So, I would take what you are told with a very large pinch of salt and margins for error. Best Wishes Lynda Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LancsLad Report post Posted November 10, 2012 I have to agree with the previous posters. My parents were asked to fill in a questionarire as part of my diagnosis process as an adult didn't have a clue about As and haven't been interested since. It would have been the same when I was a kid. If you want real answers direct the research at adults with the condition I may be 47 but I can still remeber what I felt like aged 14 to 16 and know exactly what i was doing at the time. If anything I could explain my emotions better today than I could have then. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justine1 Report post Posted November 10, 2012 Well as a mum I disagree,sorry but yes I do not know what it is like to have ASD but as far as I can tell the OP is asking questions that a parent would be able to answer...at least a parent who does know their child. Prehaps you all have negative experiences because you grew up in a different era but please don't lump as parents all together. I know when all my children(ASD or NT) are anxious and/or periods where they have low self esteem.It does not mean I can always help them but I am there going through it with them. I have seen some of the questions and as its about teens I do not see that either my boys(age 9 and 6) could answer these questions when they are 14,things like age of diagnosis and as the OP mentioned changing schools etc. Another point is as a student myself we are often given assignments with only one perspective it is not the OP's fault this is so its just how it is. Furthur down the road there maybe an assignment based on a different perspective i.e that of a professional..that neither yourselves or myself may agree with but again thats what the lecturers/universities ask for. The Op can always add onto the assignement any flaws with the survey. Sorry I cannot help with your survey as my children are younger than that age bracket. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special_talent123 Report post Posted November 10, 2012 I see two perspectives here 1 is that when people are diagnosed they ask what the childs life was and 2 being that we also know our selves. Maybe should do separate one parents, teenagers and adults as we really know how it affects our day to day lives and also person with autism can also regress Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justine1 Report post Posted November 10, 2012 Also to add whilst adult experiences are important for group discussions it would not really be relevant to talk about education experiences say 15 yrs or more ago as it has changed that much,and as I mention with regards to uni they want up to date information,usually not more than 5 years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkshine Report post Posted November 10, 2012 To really investigate self perception I'd have to say that it should be adolescents responding to these questions too seeing as it is their self perception in question, it really should be them talking about it. I do agree with some of the people here who say their parents wouldn't have a clue - and that my own parents wouldn't have had a clue - but I have to say Justine makes a fair point that some parents do know their children and do communicate and listen to them. So as much as I do think it should be the adolescents responding, I think asking parents is a feasible solution/way around a number of issues that young people may have (communication, self awareness, responding to strangers) and also I imagine that parents who don't have a clue about their kids may possibly avoid such research anyway. And in fairness with regard the whole ethical minefield of working with children for such projects - the logical solution really is to ask parents, especially considering the limited time frame. I'm sure there'll be some good points here for ideas for further research though Just a few thoughts Darkshine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SALTstudent Report post Posted December 1, 2012 Hello everyone, Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has already filled out my questionnaire and to let everyone know that I will be taking it down on Tuesday so if anyone else is able to fill it out it would be much appreciated xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
