Autism and Mainstream Education: The Parental Perspective
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Participant Information
Dear Participant, My name is Natasha and I am currently working on a research-based PhD in education through Queen's University in Belfast. The project is supervised by Dr. Nichola Booth, BCBA-D. You have been asked to consider completing this survey as a member of a special interest group relating to autism. Therefore, you are eligible to participate in this research study regarding the perspective parents whose children with autism attend mainstream school. Before you consider your participation and provide your consent, please take the time to read the following information carefully. Your participation in the is study is entirely voluntary and you are not obliged to proceed.
The purpose of this study is to explore the perspective of parents on their experience of having their children with autism attend mainstream educational settings. Parental perspectives are important to identify variables that are considered valuable in supporting children with autism to be successful in school. Research has shown that parents of children with autism tend to be less optimistic that their children would be successful academically or do not believe that their children would attend school for the long term when compared to parents of typically developing children (Ivey, 2004). Parents also seem to have little confidence in the management of their children’s behaviour within school (Starr and Foy, 2012). Incidentally, a study carried out in the US revealed that only 36% of parents were satisfied with the education that their children received (Spann, Kohler& Soenksen, 2003).
Exploring this area may serve as a catalyst for policy makers to have open conversations with parents before implementing system wide changes and further inform on variables that may be imperative when supporting children with autism, from the source who knows these children best. This is a 10- question questionnaire, to which you will be asked to respond on 5-point Likert scale. Please respond to all questions in the questionnaire. Your participation will be anonymous and no identifiable information will be requested.
You are free to withdraw your participation before the completion and submitting of the survey. Should you choose to do so, simply close the browser page and your data will not be stored. Once the survey is completed, you will be asked to click the ‘done’ icon. After this point, it will be no longer possible to withdraw your answers as responses will not be tracible back to you.
Ethical Approval and Data Management The research has gained approval from the Queen's University School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work Ethics Committee. Following University regulations all data will be anonymized and stored on a password protected encrypted computer in a double locked room. Both the researcher and her supervisor from the SSESW will have access to the data and will securely store data on their computers. As with all research the aim is to disseminate findings, therefore there is a chance that findings may be published in scientific journals or be presented at conferences. If this is the case all data collected will be fully anonymized, so that neither participants nor their school can be identified. Once the research is completed, data will be kept at Queen's University Belfast premises for a minimum of 5 years as per the University Guidelines.
Should your family feel the need to seek further support, please consider contacting the Autism Parents Association via their direct email: autismparentsassociation@gmail.com https://www.autismparentsassociation.com/
Thank you for taking the time to read about this research project. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us using the details provided below.