Tizard News and Events

“The relationship between interests and well-being”

Summer Hubble, Researcher at Canterbury Christ Church University is carrying out a study looking at the possible link  between leisure interests and well-being. She is interested to see if the special interests of autistic individuals benefit well-being differently to the interests of non-autistic individuals. You do not need an autism or Asperger’s diagnosis to take part.

 If you decide to take part in the study, you will be asked to answer a series of questions, by giving them a rating (for example, 1-5). These questions will ask you about different activities that you may or may not take part in, how often you do them, and how much you enjoy them. You will also be asked questions on your well-being, such as how happy you are, and a small number of questions that some people might find sensitive, such as whether or not you have a current mental health problem and/or any psychological diagnosis. You do not have to answer these questions if you do not wish to.

This is an online survey and to participate you need to go to the following link: https://cccusocialsciences.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2mAWKjs8xMVbcwJ

If you wish to contact Summer you can do this by email:  summer.hubble@canterbury.ac.uk

Recruitment for new study: Dr Ciara Padden, Dr Peter Baker & Gillian Eaglestone are now recruiting for their new study “The East Study: experiences of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities receiving life skills training”. They are looking for family members to participate in this study.

Are you a:
• Family member (i.e., parent or sibling) of an adult with a learning disability/autism?
• Are you based in London or South East England?
• Does your family member now, or did s/he in the past 5 years, attend a life skills training programme?
If you answered YES, we would like to hear from you.

There are still places available on the “forced marriage and people with learning disabilities launch event on 29 March 2018.

For more information please see the web page.

To register and book a place on this please go to the eventbrite page.

We are currently looking to recruit a research assistant to work on the NIHR PHR funded feasibility trial of early positive approaches to support (E-PAtS).  The primary objective of the project is to test the feasibility of carrying out a large scale randomised control trial of the effectiveness of the E-PAtS intervention.

Full details of the post are available

Closing date for applications;  4 February 2018
Interviews will be held on:  19 February 2018

A research team from the Tizard Centre is looking for adults with Tourette’s Syndrome to take part in a new and exciting study about the social care needs of adults with tourette’s syndrome.

Adults that have been diagnosed with TS who are either receiving social care or not receiving social care can take part.

The study involves completing an online survey, which will ask you questions about the Social Care Services you are receiving and your quality of life. Then, all the participants will be invited to take part in an interview. The interview can be conducted over the telephone, through skype, or onsite. If you decide to take part in the interview, a £15 voucher will be given to each participant as a token of appreciation.

If you are interested in being involved please follow this link:

Or contact :  Melina Malli
E-mail: M.A.Malli@kent.ac.uk
Tel. number: 01227 816590

The first International Conference on Disabilities in Africa (ICDA) is taking place on Saturday 28 July 2018, in Abuja, Nigeria. This marks the launch of the International School of Disability Studies in Nigeria (ISDS). The theme of the Conference is “Visible but invisible; towards a new perspective on disability in Africa”.

The conference aims to bring together researchers and stakeholders in the area of IDD to develop and share ideas that would help improve research, policy and care practices for people with IDD in Africa.

For more details see the ISDS web page

A revised and updated training pack has been published  to enable participation, independance and choice for adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Authors:  Julie Beadle-Brown, Bev Murphy & Jill Bradshaw.

The resource is designed for all those who wish to lead face-to-face group-based training which is still the recommended option for delivering training in person-centred active support to teams.

This is available from Pavilion 

This post is funded by an NIHR School for Social Care Research Award titled “Experiences of Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Receiving Life Skills Training” awarded to Dr Ciara Padden, Dr Peter Baker and Professor Rachel Forrester-Jones.

The study aims to explore experiences of adults with IDD who have attended life skills training, their family members and services providing training courses. You will have responsibility for supporting and organising the study, including the recruitment of participants, data collection and data analysis, supported by both the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator.

Candidates are welcome to contact Ciara Padden to discuss the post further. To do this, email C.M.Padden@kent.ac.uk or phone 01227 824640.

Full details

MOOCs are massive open online courses. Participants join the online course and meet other learners from around the world. Learning is as easy and natural as chatting with a group of friends.  They learn with experts who’ll share their experience through videos, articles, quizzes and discussions.

This MOOC on Understanding Autism had been designed by Tizard Centre at the University of Kent.  It is free to join and runs from 13 November for 4 weeks.  International participants are particularly welcome.

The MOOC has been co-designed with autistic people and will cover:

• What is autism… and does it exist?
• Social communication skills
• Sensory sensitivities and repetitive behaviours
• Co-occurring conditions
• Strengths and difficulties of people on the autism spectrum
• Lived experiences of people on the autism spectrum

Participants study in their own time (roughly 4 hours per week to cover the materials).  If you have any queries please contact Dr Jill Bradshaw at J.Bradshaw@kent.ac.uk
To register/enroll or to look at the online information:  https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/autism#section-dates