MIT LaunchX Autism Meltdown Research

[Isadoorian]

You say you don't plan on thinking of any solutions or are offering solutions really isn't helpful in the slightest... that still gives no context either. Solutions for/to what?

Also you still have yet to provide any meaningful details on how you believe Virtual Reality will help with meltdowns or whatever it is you want, which again, isn't helpful in the slightest.

It would seem to me all this is still fairly premature and will likely fail if you still have nothing planned accordingly and concretely if you have "no solutions in mind or planned" or even take the time and go over your survey and initial post and fix things so they're proper.

 

[Isadoorian]

Thank you for your post. We’ve been replying and reading every post on this thread and the feeling of being “experimented on” seems to be a common theme. We deeply apologize if our survey made any member of this community feel that way.

We are trying our best to not be ignorant about autism. We are also interviewing autism experts and medical professionals in addition to this community. If you see any ways to make our survey more inviting and less offensive or provide us insight into anything regarding autism please connect with us on the private conversation invite we sent.

People will likely make themselves heard via the comments here, not PMs, if need be regarding any errors, etc.. It's a matter for all. Not just individuals such as myself.

 

[GadAbout]

We will release the results of the survey on this thread when we close the survey. We are not thinking of any solutions right now we just want to gain insight into the community.

1. Oh, sure you will.
2. We don't even know who you are, whether you have human subjects review in this matter, and finally, whether you have any supervisor teaching you about research methodology. As in, this is a totally unscientific sampling method and any findings you get would be of extremely limited validity.

"Oh just go on the internet and recruit people from an autism forum. They're pretty gullible and will readily spill their guts to any stranger."

 

[Isadoorian]

1. Oh, sure you will.
2. We don't even know who you are, whether you have human subjects review in this matter, and finally, whether you have any supervisor teaching you about research methodology. As in, this is a totally unscientific sampling method and any findings you get would be of extremely limited validity.

"Oh just go on the internet and recruit people from an autism forum. They're pretty gullible and will readily spill their guts to any stranger."

As someone who's been here over a year, we get people who seek Autistics for their Surveys and Uni/College Essays, etc. constantly as a Forum like this has plenty of potential candidates who want to help. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Feel free to ignore any new ones in the future rather than be straight up rude about it.

 

[GadAbout]

Feel free to ignore any new ones in the future rather than be straight up rude about it.

Oh - was I rude? I'm sorry. I'm autistic and sometimes don't know when my comments will hurt someone's feelings or make me look like a jerk.

ALL THE SAME ... I worded my post the way I did both to deliver a message to the OP, and a caution to prospective respondents.

 

[GrownupGirl]

The only thing VR is good for is making videos of people graphically puking from the motion sickness they get from it on YouTube.

 

[Nitro]

 

[tree]

MIT
About Us

QUOTE
About Us
LaunchX gives students the entrepreneurial skills and mindset to start real companies.

Our programs help students leverage their talents and tenacity to build a viable startup. We train students in the skills and innovative thinking that allow founders to create successful businesses, challenging you to take a real startup from idea to execution and impact.

LaunchX is an independent organization that works with a variety of industry collaborators, volunteers, and university hosts to provide our innovative education programs.

We believe that high school students are capable of making a real and meaningful impact, now. We won’t stop until students everywhere have the tools they need to take initiative in building the lives and world they envision.
END QUOTE

 

[Autistamatic]

I think the most important question to ask any team such as yours @Cognality is
"How many of your team are autistic?"
and if the answer is "none" the next question is obviously
"What do you plan on doing about that?""

 

[Peter Morrison]

About Us
LaunchX gives students the entrepreneurial skills and mindset to start real companies.

Our programs help students leverage their talents and tenacity to build a viable startup. We train students in the skills and innovative thinking that allow founders to create successful businesses, challenging you to take a real startup from idea to execution and impact.

Thanks @tree - I wasn't able to take this seriously, so I wouldn't have researched the program. This group doesn't realize that they are in over their heads. Thanks for contributing the explanation.

 

[grommet]

I think you should try and make friends here first before mining us for your business data.

Thank you for saying that.

 

[tree]

The LaunchX program is a summer class for high school students.
It lasts 4 weeks. It's a non-credit enrichment class.

"LaunchX is an independent organization that works with a variety of complementary programs, sponsors, and university hosts to provide our innovative offering to high school students "
About Us

 

[Catana]

What we've found out so far is that your interest is absolutely about the possibility of starting a business. What is objectionable is not the language you used, but your inability to take in what you're being told here. That we don't appreciate someone coming in and expecting us to do your work for you, because there is plenty of information out there on the web that you could bone up on to at least get the basics. We've told you that you aren't the first to come here and expect people to tell you about themselves, for some vague project you have in mind. Basically, you've ignored everything we've said.

 

[Crossbreed]

If they are teenagers, as @tree said, we should lighten up a bit. They are not seasoned professionals. (Think of it as a science fair project.)

 

[Pinkie B]

The LaunchX program is a summer class for high school students.
It lasts 4 weeks. It's a non-credit enrichment class.

"LaunchX is an independent organization that works with a variety of complementary programs, sponsors, and university hosts to provide our innovative offering to high school students "
About Us

Wow! For a bunch of high school kids their replies are incredibly business-professional.

I'm all for helping young people make their way in the world. I do think, though, that this project is probably not a very good idea, especially if they don't have any autistics on their team advising them from the inside.

 

[Crossbreed]

..., especially if they don't have any autistics on their team advising them from the inside.

At MIT, you can never be too sure about that...

 

[Cognality]

Again, we appreciate all the feedback that we have received and once again want to iterate the reason we have developed this survey. We do not have any autistic members on our team, so in order to make sure that we are serving a real need we have come to this community not seek feedback on a product or service, but to hear the experiences of the community and use them to develop a solution that has the community in mind.

As for me, my neighbor is a six year old boy who is on the spectrum, but that does not stop me from constantlyinteracting with him. He is one of my best friend and I love to spend time with him. I have been working very closely with his family through this process as well alongside medical professionals and other autistic people alike.

So once again, although we do not have any autistics on our team we are seeking to understand the community’s needs as much as possible.

 

[Autistamatic]

Again, we appreciate all the feedback that we have received and once again want to iterate the reason we have developed this survey. We do not have any autistic members on our team, so in order to make sure that we are serving a real need we have come to this community not seek feedback on a product or service, but to hear the experiences of the community and use them to develop a solution that has the community in mind.

As for me, my neighbor is a six year old boy who is on the spectrum, but that does not stop me from constantlyinteracting with him. He is one of my best friend and I love to spend time with him. I have been working very closely with his family through this process as well alongside medical professionals and other autistic people alike.

So once again, although we do not have any autistics on our team we are seeking to understand the community’s needs as much as possible.

With the greatest of respect for your motives, if you are going to be working on a project which concerns autistic people, you really should recruit someone on the spectrum onto your team
Not only will it make your job much easier, it will be an enormous boost to your credibility. No amount of research will do as much for your project as taking that one simple step.
"Nothing about us, without us".

 

[Tom]

A vaporizing gun would be very useful.

 

[onlything]

To be honest, using VR for a meltdown may be quite interesting for some, for example, those that tend to try to escape and find a quiet, safe space to calm down and rest but have a hard time finding one - VR definitely has a possibility to provide something of similar characteristics. However, the problem is the size of the VR headsets at the moment - as mentioned, they are bulky and annoying to transport.

There is some potential but VR sets themselves would have to become much smaller, pocket versions and made from sensory-friendly materials, as well as having enough noise insulation like some of the high-quality headphones. A small device like this, something you could use similarly to glasses, just sit down, cut yourself off and relax/calm down, may be useful.

Maybe it could have some calming sounds included like rain or cicadas? Some visual input with a choice of place, some with dimmed light like a room with a candle, or fully dark like a night sky with/without a campfire, or just relaxing places like a forest or a beach. Maybe headset could have an outside texture of some kind that could be customised (wood or stone for me, they are really relaxing).

Outside the whole business of let's-get-money-from-people-with-problems, it does sound quite interesting as a relaxation tool.