Research company looking for Mums with children

[mrs q]

Dear Mrs Q

 

PineCone Research is ready to expand and we need your help.

 

We have immediate openings for MUMS OF BABIES 4 YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER, especially those with high speed internet connection, such as broadband and cable.

 

Do you know of households that meet this description that would like to join the PineCone Research Panel? If so, please FORWARD A COPY of this e-mail to each household you would like to refer so that they may click on the registration link shown below. That household should complete the registration form themselves and submit it. REMEMBER THAT ONLY ONE PERSON PER HOUSEHOLD MAY REGISTER. Multiple registrations of the same Household will void all registrations.

 

Here is the link to the registration:

 

http://www.pineconeresearch.co.uk/signup/d...20Referral1.asp

 

If your referral has any questions, they can e-mail us at scott@pineconeresearch.co.uk.

 

As a member in good standing, you've already seen the benefits of being part of PineCone Research. So please, share the benefits of membership with a friend. Just don't forget, please don't tell them about any of the products that you have seen in our questionnaires or tried in your home.

 

***********************

 

Every time you complete a survey you usually get paid in Luncheon Vouchers...sounds weird....but TESCO and ASDa accept them ....�4 off your shopping.

[TylersMum]

All signed up. I am also a member of a research panel based in America. You have to earn �37,000 per annum+ to participate but they send me �10 sterling every time I complete a questionnaire - very nice

[mrs q]

I am on quite a few panels.....

 

BUT this one is good that you get the voucher straight away...others you have to build up points and it takes ages...

[TylersMum]

Excellent. Shall wait for them to send my password etc.

[littlenemo]

You have to earn �37,000 per annum+ to participate

So what kind of surveys do they do? Childcare issues for the wealthy and priviledged?

There's another thread running at the moment about the inability of ASDs to find and keep jobs, many of us have had to give up our jobs to look after our kids (and fight for their rights), so it makes me wonder what use such biased data will be used for when it only applies to those on double the national average income.

Mountains of data from the last 150 years has shown that most aspects of life (health, education, crime, drugs, etc. etc.) are hugely affected by wealth (or lack of).

Unfortunately the PineCone data will be similarly (though not as extremely) skewed by requiring broadband, which again creates a self-selecting database mainly consisting of those above the national average in terms of wealth, health, access to resources, etc.

 

As the man said: "Lies, damned lies and statistics..."

 

nemo

 

mrs q and Tyler's mum - this is not meant to be an attack on your good selves, I'm just very worried about the conclusions these groups will reach and publish as it is just the sort of thing the authorities love to quote to say that they're doing a great job and there's no problem, while we all know they're not and there is.

[TylersMum]

Can see your point, but the fact that these surveys are aimed at all economical levels of society demonstrates that ASD is not just something that happens to the less wealthy. Broadband now costs the same as dial up did 12 months ago.

 

Those who are cash-rich (not me, by the way) still face the same battles and daily issues as everyone else and no amount of money is ever going to change that. Private treatment instead of NHS doesn't make a jot of difference to a child with ASD, trust me!

 

The survey I mentioned relates to marketing products and my input simply allows them to collate views on new products for kids (nothing to do with special needs) in general. They then sell the data back to Johnsons or whoever the manufacturer is.

 

Incidentally, Tyler was diagnosed at 4, had a statement at 4 and has had LOTS of help from various groups but thats just because the people we were involved with were excellent, and they all worked for the NHS - none of Tylers assessments have been done privately. Swindon rocks for help with these things!!!

Edited September 7, 2005 by TylersMum

[littlenemo]

the fact that these surveys are aimed at all economical levels of society

sorry to quibble, but surely if one has to earn 37K+ means they're not.

Wealth (or lack of it) is not the problem, but tends to be comorbid with other things that are, which is why the marketing companies use it as an easy filter. It makes perfect sense if you're doing marketing surveys, target markets and all that, I was wrongly assuming it was ASD related.

 

Unfortunately we did need to go private to get Com's diagnosis (Leeds are cr*p in that and many other areas due to the privatised LEA). I'm certainly not knocking the NHS - once we got Com on the conveyor belt, they have been brilliant. But for many parents not only is that not an option (we only managed with help from grandparents), but due to lack of education/language they don't even know that there are any options.

 

I've met a couple of people (and I'm sure that there are more) who think that Aspergers is just a middle-class affectation (see the Channel 4 programme on dyslexia for example). As you say it goes across the board, regardless of race, class or culture, and any survey trying to find out about ASD's should do likewise.

That's all I was trying to say. I'm afraid I came across Hans Eysenck's famously biased, fraudulent and made up data proving white racial superiority in IQ's at an impressionable age, and so have been extremely sceptical of all statistics ever since. Though until just now I hadn't realised just how strongly I felt on this.

[TylersMum]

Fair point. Its only one panel that requires that level of income, the rest that I am involved in are completely open to everyone, working or not!

[phasmid]

We have immediate openings for MUMS OF BABIES 4 YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER, especially those with high speed internet connection, such as broadband and cable.

 

Blimey ,things have changed since the last little Phasmid was born! I didn't know mums or their babies could come with a broadband connection! The wonders of modern technology!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, but that did tickle my sense of humour

[TylersMum]

If babies came with broadband, maybe I could have ordered one online to be delivered to my door (like shopping) instead of going through labour

[littlenemo]

For his 10th birthday Com wanted a firewire port. In his head!

We told him he'd have to wait till he was 18