Analyzing the Autism Paper

¶ … children with severe autism experienced the receipt of special education assistance in public schools. This population is characterized by underdevelopment of social cognition, social skills, and language skills. What is the best method for collecting data to answer your research question? Why is this method best? How would you describe the research design?

The best method for collecting data to answer the research question is the qualitative case study methodology. As pointed out by Baxter and Jack (2008), this is the best as it provides components for a researcher to study and examine intricate occurrences within their contexts. The intricate phenomenon in this particular instance is severe autism, which can generate dissimilar behaviors in different children and can have various ranges of extreme behaviors. More so, when there is proper application of this particular method, the qualitative case study methodology becomes a significant and imperative method for health science research to establish and advance theory, assess programs, and develop interventions (Baxter and Jack, 2008). In addition, the qualitative case study is a method to research that enables investigation and examination of a phenomenon within its setting using diverse data sources. This makes certain that the aspect being studied is not examined through limited view, but encompasses a variation of lenses, which permits for manifold aspects of the phenomenon, in this case, severe autism, to be discovered, and understood (Baxter and Jack, 2008). In addition, similar to many qualitative designs, in this context, there are a number of distinct questions that have to be unraveled by the researcher (Core Designs for Qualitative Research Lecture 6 Notes). Therefore, with regard to the research design, the researcher will come up with particular questions that take into account the phenomenon (severe autism) under consideration (Merriam, 1998). In particular, qualitative multiple-case studies will be more befitting as it facilitates the researcher to examine dissimilarities within as well as between various cases. Therefore, the researcher will be able to predict similar results through various cases or forecast opposing results on the basis of a theory (Yin, 2003).

Suppose you are interested in how children with severe autism experienced the receipt of special education assistance in public schools. This population is characterized by underdevelopment of social cognition, social skills, and language skills. How many children should be included in the study? Why? What are the factors considered in making this determination?

The question that is being taken into account is the number of participants that would be necessary and sufficient to properly explore the case study being examined. The number of children that ought to be included in the study is suggested to be roughly thirty. The reason why this medium size number is selected is because it offers the advantage probing mannerisms, attitudes, inputs and outcomes beyond a very small number of individuals that could potentially result in the research issues caused by repetitive gathering of data, particularly when researchers experience constraints in time. A number of factors are taken into consideration when making this determination. One of the factors is that getting the assent of a greater number of subjects and participants could be difficult. In this case, it is not quite easy to obtain children with severe autism to be participants in a case study, which generates more justification for the number chosen (Baker et al., 2012). The second factor that is taken into account is the subjective nature of the relationship between the researcher and the participants or subjects. For instance, in this case, it will be imperative to spend time with the children with severe autism, generate a relationship with them, and also observe their behaviors from the special education assistance given. it will be obviously difficult to establish such rapport when the number of children is larger (Baker et al., 2012). The other aspect that is taken into consideration encompasses validity, objectivity, and also reliability of the participants and sample. Of course having a greater number of participants implies having more reliability, as great extents of changes can be perceived and the phenomenon can be studied extensively. However, having too many participants can cause the case study and research method to lack reliability and validity (Baker et al., 2012). On the other hand, involving too few participants posits the possibility of incomplete and insufficient data measures. Each child carries with it variance in personal issues, background considerations and disparate history. In addition, social and ethnic concern are also important factors to arrive at authentic conclusions. Considering the issues involved, a moderate size of thirty participants seems a good balance to answer the research questions that would allow for proper categorization of outcomes and solutions offered thereof.