The Centre for Autism at the University of Reading regularly invites autistic people of all ages, and members of their families, to take part in research studies being carried out by staff and students.
They are particularly keen to involve people living in Berkshire in their work.
The research teams would like to hear from people who would be happy to take part in online surveys or visit the centre – which is part of the Department of Psychology at the university’s Whiteknights campus – to take part in projects involving working with members of the centre’s team.
The centre’s website has a dedicated research section, giving information about its current projects, who is needed to take part in them, and how to get involved with studies.
Participants will be reimbursed for their time and travel expenses in a number of cases.
Click here to visit the centre’s research page to find out about current studies and for more information about the Centre for Autism and the services that it provides for autistic people and for professionals who work with them.
Researchers at the CAASD Lab at the University of Reading are testing innovative treatment approaches to help language development in non-verbal and minimally-verbal autistic children, aged 2 to 5.
They are looking for families interested in taking part in an online intervention programme to train parents to work with their children, by taking part in two 45-minute sessions per week for 18 weeks.
All participants who decide to take part will be randomly assigned to the Lab’s Music Assisted Programme (MAP) or to a speech and language therapy programme called Social Communication Intervention for Pre-schoolers (SCIP).
Parents are trained and supported by a speech & language therapist throughout the programme, which is intended to result in language increase in the children.
The researchers are keen to hear from as many families as possible, including those where the child will not patiently sit in front of a camera or where the parent does not consider themselves to be very ‘technology-savvy’. For therapy purposes, they do not expect the child to engage with the therapist on screen – instead they will coach the parent to deliver the therapy and provide advice about how to support a child’s language development.
Families taking part will be renumerated for their time at a rate of £7.50 per hour.
Click here for more details of the project or email caasd@reading.ac.uk and you can register to take part by clicking here.
The Autism Research team at Royal Holloway, part of the University of London, which is based in Egham, close to Windsor and Ascot, also makes regular requests for autistic people and members of their families to participate in their studies.
Click here to visit the Royal Holloway Autism Research website, which has an online form for people to register an interest in taking part in research projects.
