Researchers at the University of Queensland are conducting an exciting new research project for children with FASD! PhD Candidate Kelly Skorka provided us with the information below.
We want to understand the experiences of children with FASD and their families. For this study we are looking for children aged between 5 and 18 years, diagnosed with FASD, and their caregivers from across Australia, to help us gain insight into their daily lives. We want to find out the challenges that children and their families experience, their strengths or what makes them resilient, the activities in which they participate, and the environments in which they spend their time.
Most of the research so far has investigated the impacts of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing brain, but there has been very little research about what life is like for children with FASD.
With your help, our study hopes to fill in the gaps and learn more about the day-to-day lives of children with FASD and their families. Ultimately, this research aims to help improve intervention services to support individuals with FASD and their families.
We are excited to conduct this study in a number of ways to ensure that we gain a deep understanding of participants’ experiences. For children between 5 and 10 years old, we would like the opportunity to observe them participating in their daily activities, such as home tasks, attending kindergarten or school, attending extra-curricular or community activities. These observation sessions will occur over two (2) days for a period of 3-4 hours at a time (e.g., one morning session and on afternoon / evening session).
Children between 10 and 18 years will be asked to take photographs of their daily activities and environments (e.g., home, school, and community activities) for 1-2 weeks, and then participate in an interview about the photos and their experiences.
Caregivers of all children participating in this study will also be asked to participate in an interview to discuss their child’s daily activities, strengths, challenges, and needs for intervention services.
Whilst this study is being conducted through the University of Queensland, we welcome participants from across Australia for all parts of the study, except the observation sessions. Interviews can be conducted via telephone or video call for participants living outside of Brisbane, or at participants’ home within Brisbane if that is more convenient. An online photo diary program has been developed for this study to allow participants to upload their photos and easily share the ones they’d like to discuss with the researchers, or alternatively, photos can be emailed to the researchers.
Children and their families participating in the observation sessions will need to be living locally in Brisbane; however, caregivers of this age group living interstate are welcome to participate in an interview. All information that you can give us will be very valuable!
If you are interested in learning more about this study, please contact Kelly Skorka at kelly.skorka@uqconnect.edu.au. We look forward to hearing from you!
View the study flyer.
Read more NOFASD Australia blogs.
