Children in mainstream classrooms.

thats as may be but if it were my office, id read every post, every day... 

Trouble is we get so many of these and it isn't easy for the moderators to spot violations. "children in mainstream classrooms" doesn't immediately disclose a student parasiting disabled websites.

It would be better if certain universities practised what they claim to practise. Cardiff Met does have a very clearly displayed and lucid ethics policy. But its not a lot of good having one if students do this.

Its not like I can complain to them as I'd be breaching the confidentiality of the forum. But I wish NAS would take issue with some universities. I think Cardiff Metropolitan owes NAS a really big donation.

OP in clear violation since thurs and no response?

Sounds slightly hash on someone who has not thought, but true. Most parents on here are looking for guidence and advice. From what i've read and a 'researcher' looking for info could easliy be interpratedly wrongly and give information without proper consideration. I was always told when looking at further education that doing the course alone was not enough and enough effort and volunteer work was required to show genuine interest and to 'stand out from the crowd'.

Their must be connections for gathering data under supervision in an volunteering enviorment as longman and  stateofindependence mentioned.

I mean no offence but as a 3rd year student you should of thought about this more, asking about Children on a website where parents are mainly asking 'from what i've seen' advice and are asking questions on what is best to do and how to deal with a diagnosis is a very grey area.

Look at some of the posts draw your own conclusions and then gather data from legitimate sources where you have gotten sure approvel and you should have some data.

I've never heard of many Students wanting to work with Adults, 'might just be me' but alot of adults were over looked and were not recgonised years ago i think they must be alot of scopein this area, and no not as many going into for it.

I would not consider a third year undergraduate doing their final year project an autism researcher. The priority is to carry out a project following correct procedure to demonstrate they know how to carry out an independent project. The subject matter isn't crucial but it helps if it interests the student.

What worries me here, as every year, is the number of students who think an easy way is to quarry a support site for the disabled.

To carry out useful research on autism in the classroom you need to carry out direct observations. That means being vetted to study minors. It can be done by undergraduates in properly supervised circumstances. Data can be collected from parents, but there need to be controls on the use and disposal of the data, ensuring full confidentiality, and the group of parents interviewed needs to be identified following correct procedures.

Coming onto a help forum like this and asking people to give you information towards your undergraduate project is lazy, insensitive, and shouldn't qualify for a good grade.

What worries me is that many parents may not be aware of the distinction between a third year undergraduate project and real research. Not everybody knows in relative terms what a third year undergraduate project is, unless they've been to university themselves, or someone in immediate family has done so. There are people who don't go to university who might think this enquiry is from a real autism researcher, and disclose things they really shouldn't disclose to a student taking shortcuts.

Everything Longman says... but my opinion is that you (and many other Autism researchers) are barking up the wrong tree. If you want to support children who are intelligent but shy and/or lack social skills (whatever their diagnosis or label), schools need to start identifying their bullies as the ones who are "abnormal". And expel them, as schools used to do before everyone got so PC. 

Hi Jodie,

Have you discussed with your supervisor appropriate ways to collect data on children? There are real ethics issues here. You are asking a forum designed for safe support to parents of children with autism to impart information to you about minors.

An undergraduate dissertation is not a safe place for gathering such information as there is no proper infrastructure governing the disposal of information and the visibility of the dissertation to third parties. Even if you code responses, information disclosed may identify the person or services used.

Above all you should seek permission from the managers/moderators of a website like this. It is in the rules, if you read them.

Cardiff Metropolitan, although a new university, actually has very clear guidance on research ethics and research governance. I'm actually impressed by it. What you are trying to do is in direct contravention of your university's best efforts at good practice. So you are letting them down.

Talk to your supervisor, and if need be the research committee for your subject School. It may be your supervisor needs to be better advised.