Self-injury or Self-harm as One of the Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders - Case Study Example

Over Stimulation in Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorders May Lead To Self-Injurious Behavior Introduction Self injury or self harm is one of the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders in those suffering from any disorder within this Spectrum of disorders. Self injury is one of the most dangerous problems that such patients and their caretakers have to face. In this regard, it is necessary for research t be done with regard to various issues to identify the causes of this issue. The following is a study proposal to investigate how patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders are likely to harm themselves. The hypothesis for the study will be that overstimulation in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders may lead to self-injurious behavior. Participants The participants will be selected using a snowball sampling method. The reason for this is because the subjects are very rare in the population and so any other sampling method such as the random simple sampling will either take too long or it may never find enough participants. As a result, the snowballing sampling will be used and every available candidate will be asked to refer other candidates to participate in the study. It is good to note that since the actual subjects are people with autistic disorder, it will not be viable to ask them for recommendation. However, these participants are accompanied by their children and in this will mean that their parents or care takers can be asked to recommend any other person who they know has a child with the same condition and whose parents can be interested in having them in the study. This method will be viable to gain as many participants as possible. Apparatus/Materials There will be a number of materials and apparatus that will be needed in order for this study to be carried out efficiently and effectively. These will include the following; Brain scanners Brains scanners will be use in scanning the brain of the participants during the study in order to see how active it is. They will also be used to scan and determine which parts of the brain are active at any given time. This will help in determining which parts of the brain of a person with autism spectrum disorder and determine how the various factors play out. Clothes It is every evident that people with autism spectrum disorders have problems with certain types of clothes. These are cloths that are likely to cause stimulation on the skin and since these people are always over sensitive with regard to their sensory systems, they are likely to feel over stimulated and this engage in self injurious activities. Procedures The brain scanners will be used to scan the brain of the participants. The study will be seeking to identify whether certain types of clothes can increase overstimulation and thus cause self injurious behaviors in such people with autism spectrum disorders. As a result, the brain scanners will be used to first scan their brain when they are wearing minimal clothes. The results of the brain scans will be recorded for each participant. The participants will then be asked or made to wear different types of clothes and their brains will be scanned while they are wearing these cloths as a way to find out of the clothes increase over stimulations. The behavior of the participants will also be recorded with an aim to identify if their self injurious behavior increases or reduces with any type of clothes. Data to be collected Brian scans The brains scans swill be able to show two important types of information. The first one is the level of brain activity in the brain of a person with autism spectrum disorder. The second one will be with regard to which parts of the brain are most active in various situation such as when the patient is wearing certain clothes. The other type of data to be collected will be the correlation between the brain activity and the level of self injurious activity. The study will also collect the data about the correlation between brain activity/level of self injurious activity and the types of cloths the participants will be wearing. This will be important in informing future studies and also in identifying the things that can be done in order to help the patients to not engage in self injurious activity. Data analysis Once all these information is collected, data will be coded and analysis using a statistics software package such as SPSS. This will e used to determine the factors that increase over sensitivity and how this oversensitivity is correlated, or not, to the increase in the level of injury. Measures There will be a number of issues that must be taken into consideration when carrying out the study. These issues will require to have measures to help in avoiding negative issues from coming up during the study. The first issue will be the fact that these children with autism spectrum disorders do not like stimulation of the skin. Attaching brain scanners ion their skull may be a big challenge since they may resist this. The measures to be used here are twofold. First, it will be necessary to use brain scanners that are not stimulate to the skins. Unlike the traditional brain scanners, technological advancements have produced brain scanners that are as comfortable as wearing a cap on the head. The study will seek to use these types of brain scanners. However, it will be necessary to note that these brain scanners are likely to be more expensive than the other types of scanners. Secondly, to avoid resistance from the participants, they will not be forced to wear the scanners but will be asked and coaxed into wearing them. This may mean that more time will be needed for every session for every participants but it will be the best way to minimize the resistance. The other issue that will be needed to be considered is the fact that the participants may not be willing to wear the clothes that they will be asked to wear during the study. To overcome this, the participants will also not be forced to wear clothes but will be coaxed or given incentives to wear he clothes. Ethical considerations There are many ethical considerations that will have to be taken care of during a study like this (Koocher, 2007). The first one has to do with regard to the wellbeing of the participants. As has been discussed, these types of patients are always very sensitive, not only with regard to their sensory system, but also with regard to the fact that the way hey process emotions is different from the general population. Forcing them to do the injurious things such as wearing a brain scanner and or the various clothes can highly diminish their quality of life at any given time. It will be necessary for this to be take care of and making sure that there will be no harm to the patient. The other issue to deal with is the fact that the actual participants will be children. While consent may be acquired from their parents, this will not mean that the participants themselves have given their consent. The other challenge with regard to this is the fact that these are not just children but they are also people with autism spectrum disorders. Their ability to communicate with regard to whether or not they want to participate in the study will be limited. It will be more than necessary to make sure that the quality of life for the participants will not be affected negatively by them participating in the study. Reference Koocher, P. (2007). Ethics in Psychology and the Mental Health Professions : Standards and Cases: Standards and Cases. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Read More