Experiences, needs and family quality of life of families of individuals on the autism spectrum

Participant details
Name and surname
Sofía Baena Medina
Home institution
Universidad Loyola Andalucía
Location of the Training School
Faro, Portugal
Dates for the Training School
Thursday, July 4, 2024 to Friday, July 5, 2024
Training School Title
Family support and research for social impact
Research interests
Family support, positive parenting, family and autism spectrum disorder, design and programme evaluation
TS details
Knowledge and skill acquisition

First, it was an opportunity to reflect on which actions we have taken towards generating social impact. In my case, it helped me to realize that I need to do more in that regard, by contacting family associations and disseminating the results in alternative ways. I learnt also about consensus methods, which some of them I already knew about, but not in detail, and also learnt about different ways that could be applied to my current and future research. It was interesting also to learn more about how this consensus methods were applied in the creation of the quality assurance protocol. Finally, I learnt about the importance of using alternative and creative ways of not only disseminating but including the voices of families, children and young people into research. 

Outputs

A power point presentation about our research project and how we have and plan to generate social impact. In addition, we will have abstracts’ proceedings summarizing all the research and plans for creating social impact with our research. 

Future collaborations

I have learnt more about topics that were interesting to me. We strengthened the ties with young researchers on the field and at least two more researchers were interested in becoming part of the young researchers group. In addition, one of the researchers is working on a similar project, so we will continue the relationship outside of the training school. Finally, experienced researchers offered to collaborate with the young researchers group as guest speakers.

Video and/or quote describing the experience

Reflection and taking time to plan for social impact is part of the researchers’ tasks.