ABSTRACT

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are often excluded from research that concerns them due to diverse ethical and methodological issues. This paper provides strategies for how to include children with IDD as active participants of research, an issue which to date has received little attention in the research methods literature. In particular, we draw from our experiences of engaging with 16 children with IDD in a qualitative study that sought to understand their experiences in inclusive schools in Ghana. Using data collection methods comprising observations, the draw and write technique and interviews, we actively engaged children with IDD in the current research, effectively shifting common power dynamics between researcher and child. The paper identifies the successes and challenges we encountered while utilizing multiple methods with children with IDD and provide strategies and tips for researchers interested in applying these methods in the future. We believe the use of combined qualitative approaches or multiple methods may be a key strategy to secure rich and useful data from children with IDD that informs policy and practice.

摘要

由于不同的伦理和方法问题，智力和发育障碍 (IDD) 儿童经常被排除在与他们有关的研究之外。本文提供了如何将 IDD 儿童纳入研究的积极参与者的策略，这一问题迄今为止在研究方法文献中很少受到关注。特别是，我们从与 16 名 IDD 儿童接触的定性研究中汲取了经验，该研究旨在了解他们在加纳包容性学校的经历。使用包括观察、绘画和写作技巧和访谈在内的数据收集方法，我们积极让 IDD 儿童参与当前的研究，有效地转移了研究人员和儿童之间的共同权力动态。该论文确定了我们在对 IDD 儿童使用多种方法时遇到的成功和挑战，并为有兴趣在未来应用这些方法的研究人员提供了策略和技巧。我们认为，使用组合的定性方法或多种方法可能是从 IDD 儿童那里获得丰富有用的数据的关键策略，这些数据可为政策和实践提供信息。