The proposed research would look deep into how children with autism engage in communication and interaction with individuals in their surroundings, primarily in homes and school settings. The research would aim to highlight the differences in communication for autistic children in the two environments that are different from each other. Effective communication in social interaction is an area of difficulty for children who suffer from autism during their school years. A better understanding of the social communication experience of the children would surely enable professionals to bring improvement in the support system provided to these children for increased communication and socialization strategies in different environments.
A phenomenological research philosophy would be beneficial for the proposed research that would involve attempting to understand the comprehensive phenomena of autistic child communication through appropriate data collection methods. The phenomenological approach would be appropriate as the researchers would be able to capture the lived experience of the children in their natural settings (Smith 2015). According to Waters (2016) phenomenological research focuses on the occurrences, events and experiences of individuals with minimum regard for external influences. In this form of research philosophy, focus is directed towards reliable explanations for experiences of individuals. In phenomenology, the basic ideas are built up from rich data generated through induction and actions of human interests. The chief advantage of phenomenological research lies in its ability to contribute to novice theories. In the proposed research, the research philosophy would help in understanding discernments and perspectives of autistic children.
Research approach
Qualitative research approach would be appropriate for the proposed research since descriptive data would be collected regarding the lived experience of the children with autism. Such a research approach would help the researchers to look deep into the behaviours, feelings and attitudes of the research participants (Smith 2015). Creation of openness through qualitative research would be helpful as the children would be encouraged to expand their responses to the research questions (Silverman 2016). Through such a study, a clear picture can be built up on how children with autism communicate in school and home settings, and whether there are any differences among the communication patterns in the two settings.
Sample population
A purposive sampling would be carried out for recruiting children who suffer autism. Autism diagnosis would be confirmed as reported by the local healthcare department. 15 children suffering from autism would be included in the study after fulfilment of the inclusion criteria. A purposive sampling is the form of non-probability sampling that selects participants on the basis of certain characteristics of the population. It is useful since it provides a justification to make generalizations from the sample under study (Matthews and Ross2014). A small sample size would allow for a detailed analysis across respondents (Silverman 2016). Inclusion criteria for the recruitment of participants would be diagnosis of autism; attendance in mainstream school; English as the first language of the children and their parents; age between 10-12 years.
Semi-structured interviews are to be conducted with the children at school over a three-month period. In addition, mothers of all children are to be considered for similar interviews at home. The school would be the desirable setting for conducting the interviews with the children as children suffering from autism might show reluctance to communicate about a particular context when they are placed in another (Mojtahed et al. 2014). Semi-structured interviews would be conducted due to the varied advantages it presents. Such interviews are best done when the researchers would not get further chances of interviewing the respondents (Cooke et al. 2018). In the present, the chances are high that children with autism would not give consent to engage in the similar study again. The process can provide comparable and reliable qualitative data. Further, the respondents can be given complete freedom to express their views as per their own terms.
The interview for the children would last for about 30-40 minutes. The language of communication with the children would be at a concrete level. Further, the questions would need to be short and outlined on the basis of direct viewpoints and experiences of the respondents (Matthews and Ross 2014). A stop card is to be provided to the children to indicate if they wanted to skip a question or move on to the next one while answering a particular question of disinterest. Photographs are to be used as a visual representation of the personal school environment of the children. These pictures would also include examples of social communication of the children in the school setting (Christensen et al. 2016). Parent interviews would take place for about one hour and a topic guide would be useful for facilitating the exploration of key themes.
Rigorous analysis is to be carried out for explicit research findings. The transcript of each participant interview would be examined for finding patterns. Cross case analysis is to be carried out for exploring the differences and similarities between the emerging themes. The photographs used are to be made a part of the data set with appropriate interpretation of the same by the children (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015).
The process of development of themes would be based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). In such form of analysis, the researcher is to undertake exploration and engage in making sense of the perceptions ad viewpoints of the participants (Eatough and Smith 2017). A reflective journal would be used as the communication difficulties of the children make it essential for reflect on and acknowledge the interpretive role of the researchers. Trustworthiness would be enhanced by considering an audio trail with details on the analytical development (Silverman 2016). The data collected from the interview of the parents would serve, to some extent, as the form of triangulation for collating the data from the children. Detailed quotes would be helpful for illustrating the results that support the strength of the research conclusion (Bearss et al. 2015).
Ethical considerations and implications
Ethical approval is to be obtained from the Ethics Committee who would review the research proposal. Informed consent and confidentiality procedures are crucial for maintaining ethical principles in research. Informed consent refers to the permission given by the research participants to participate in a research after knowing the implications of the research. It is necessary to explain to the participants the aim and objectives of the research. They would also need to be informed that they would have the freedom to quit from the study as per their convenience if the need of the same is felt (Spurlin and Garven 2016). Confidentiality would be maintained by ensuring that the research data does not have any third-party access. All information related to the research would be stored in a save and secured manner (Bailey and Bailey 2017).
References
Bailey, C.R. and Bailey, C.A., 2017. A guide to qualitative field research. Sage Publications.
Bearss, K., Johnson, C., Smith, T., Lecavalier, L., Swiezy, N., Aman, M., McAdam, D.B., Butter, E., Stillitano, C., Minshawi, N. and Sukhodolsky, D.G., 2015. Effect of parent training vs parent education on behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder: a randomized clinical trial. Jama, 313(15), pp.1524-1533.
Christensen, D.L., Bilder, D.A., Zahorodny, W., Pettygrove, S., Durkin, M.S., Fitzgerald, R.T., Rice, C., Kurzius-Spencer, M., Baio, J. and Yeargin-Allsopp, M., 2016. Prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder among 4-year-old children in the autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 37(1), pp.1-8.
Cooke, E., Brady, M., Alipio, C. and Cook, K., 2018. Researching the experiences of young children using graphic elicitation: a case study of the use of drawing diaries in semi-structured interviews. SAGE Research Methods Cases Part 2, p.1.
Eatough, V. and Smith, J.A., 2017. Interpretative phenomenological analysis. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. London: Sage Publications Ltd, pp.193-211.
Matthews, B. and Ross, L., 2014. Research methods. Pearson Higher Ed.
Mojtahed, R., Nunes, M.B., Martins, J.T. and Peng, A., 2014. Equipping the Constructivist Researcher: The Combined use of Semi-Structured Interviews and Decision-Making maps. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 12(2).
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
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