Research Fundamentals:
Early Childhood Autism Therapy Research
This website will teach you about research. You’ll learn about research methods, vocabulary, and more. This information can help you get involved in the research process. There are 5 sections (“modules”) in the training. You can learn more about them in the Table of Contents below.
There are many different kinds of research. We will focus on research about young autistic children and their families, like those who receive services through the Early Intervention (EI) program in the United States (See “Guiding Terminology” for more information). But the information you will learn also applies to other kinds of research.
PCORI created a training about research concepts. Their training focuses on adult research. This website was made as a supplement to their training. It adds information about autism and kids. You can find links to the original training in the Additional Resources for each module.
Table of Contents
Module 1: Overview of Autism Research
- In this module, we will describe what research is, the importance of research, and historical perspectives in autism research. Some specific topics we’ll address include models of disability and the history of exclusion in autism research.
- Video length: 36.5 minutes
Module 2: Creating Inclusive Research – Participatory Approaches
- In this module, we’ll discuss how to create more inclusive and important research by involving community members in the research process.
- Video length: 23.5 minutes
Module 3: Developing a Research Question
- In this module, we’ll discuss the process of creating a specific research question to test in a research study.
- Video length: 15.5 minutes
Module 4: Creating a Research Study
- In this module, we’ll discuss how to create a research study. We’ll describe different types of data (information) and study designs (ways of organizing research studies).
- Video length: 24.25 minutes
Module 5: Conducting a Research Study
- In this module, we’ll discuss how to conduct a research study. This includes information about keeping participants safe, how to analyze and interpret data to answer research questions, and how to share the results of a research study.
- Video length: 27.5 minutes
Supplemental Materials
- We have also included supplemental resources for your information:
- Getting Involved in Research as a Participant
- Getting Involved in Research as a Community Member
- Glossary of Terms
- Plain Language Versions of the Modules
How to Use The Tool
The training is split up into 5 modules. You can click on the tab to access each module below. For each module of the training, you will find:
- A YouTube video presentation
- Presentation slides and transcript
- A glossary of terms defined in the module
- References and Additional Resources for the module
- An optional, 10-question quiz to check your learning
- Plain Language documents for each module
Check Out the Modules Here:
- 1: Overview of Autism Research
- 2: Creating Inclusive Research - Participatory Research
- 3: Developing a Research Question
- 4: Designing a Research Study
- 5: Conducting a Research Study
In this module, we will describe what research is, the importance of research, and historical perspectives in autism research. Some specific topics we’ll address include models of disability and the history of exclusion in autism research.
This module video is 36 minutes long. If you would like to take a break while watching the video, we recommend pausing after Section 2. You can turn on subtitles by pressing “CC” in the YouTube menu bar. You can also adjust the playback speed to make it faster or slower by pressing the “wheel” icon in the menu bar.
Download the Module 1 Transcript
Download the Module 1 References and Additional Resources
Download the Module 1 Glossary
Download the Module 1 Self-Check Quiz (Optional)
In this module, we’ll discuss how to create more inclusive and important research by involving community members in the research process.
This module video is 23.5 minutes long. If you would like to take a break while watching the video, we recommend pausing after Section 2. You can turn on subtitles by pressing “CC” in the YouTube menu bar. You can also adjust the playback speed to make it faster or slower by pressing the “wheel” icon in the menu bar.
Download the Module 2 Transcript
Download the Module 2 References and Additional Resources
Download the Module 2 Glossary
In this module, we’ll discuss the process of creating a specific research question to test in a research study. The content from this module is a supplement to PCORI’s Research Fundamentals Training Module 1
This module video is 15.5 minutes long. If you would like to take a break while watching the video, we recommend pausing after Section 2. You can turn on subtitles by pressing “CC” in the YouTube menu bar. You can also adjust the playback speed to make it faster or slower by pressing the “wheel” icon in the menu bar.
Download the Module 3 Transcript
Download the Module 3 References and Additional Resources
Download the Module 3 Glossary
In this module, we’ll discuss how to create a research study. We’ll describe different types of data (information) and study designs (ways of organizing research studies). The content from this module is a supplement to PCORI’s Research Fundamentals Training Module 2
This module video is about 24 minutes long. If you would like to take a break while watching the video, we recommend pausing after Section 1. You can turn on subtitles by pressing “CC” in the YouTube menu bar. You can also adjust the playback speed to make it faster or slower by pressing the “wheel” icon in the menu bar.
Download the Module 4 Transcript
Download the Module 4 References and Additional Resources
Download the Module 4 Glossary
Download the Module 4 Self-Check Quiz (Optional)
In this module, we’ll discuss how to conduct a research study. This includes information about keeping participants safe, how to analyze and interpret data to answer research questions, and how to share the results of a research study.
The content from this module is a supplement to PCORI’s Research Fundamentals Training Module 3, Module 4, and Module 5
This module video is 27.5 minutes long. If you would like to take a break while watching the video, we recommend pausing after Section 2 and/or Section 3. You can turn on subtitles by pressing “CC” in the YouTube menu bar. You can also adjust the playback speed to make it faster or slower by pressing the “wheel” icon in the menu bar.
Download the Module 5 Transcript
Download the Module 5 References and Additional Resources
Download the Module 5 Glossary
Download the Module 5 Self-Check Quiz (Optional)
Supplemental Materials
Getting Involved in Research as a Participant
This resource describes how you can get involved in research as a study participant. This means being in the research study. It describes benefits and risks of participation, and how to tell if a research study is trustworthy.
Getting Involved in Research as a Community Partner
This resource describes how you can get involved in research as a community member. This means being a part of the research team, or helping researchers make decisions about a study. It describes benefits and risks of participation, ideas for how to find a team to get involved with, and a list of things that researchers should do to make sure you’re comfortable with your participation.
Glossary
This resource contains the glossary of all terms we will define in these modules. You can find more information about these terms within the module presentations!
Download the Glossary in plain language here.
Plain Language Modules
You can download the plain language versions of for each module in the tabs above. Below, we included one single document combining all the modules together. We also have a glossary of terms in plain language that you can use as a reference while reading the modules.
Download the combined plain language modules here!
Download the plain language glossary here.
We tried to make this tool accessible for people with varying communication and executive functioning needs. But everyone has different preferences. Here are a couple of additional resources that present similar information that you may find helpful:
READI Curriculum: This research training was created for, and in partnership with, people with intellectual disabilities. It was originally made to be used with a trained facilitator, but all their materials available if you want to view it on your own.
PCORI Research Fundamentals: This link will take you to the home page for the original Research Fundamentals tool.
© Megan Roberts, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Jordan Lee
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Users must give credit to the creator, and users may copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form and for noncommercial purposes only.