Touch Research

[EllieMSC]

Introduction:
Hi I'm Ellie and I am a masters student at the University of Newcastle currently. I am also a medical student with a particular interest in psychiatry and early diagnosis of ASD particularly in females. I am conducting research into touch for my dissertation hopefully.

About the research:

• I'm investigating the link between touch and social skills.
• There i has been previous research demonstrating that sensory processing can be a huge problem in autism but very little done in touch and how medical professionals can assess this.
• I aim to find out if touch in particular is a problem in autism and how that impacts peoples daily lives.
• The questionnaire takes about 15 minutes and is completely anonymous.
• The research has ethical approval from the University of Newcastle

Contact:
If you have any questions or want more information please get in touch at: [email protected]

Survey Link:
http://nclpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eVPToGcGzLFcVs9

 

[Pats]

I think it's important to note that touching objects might be gratifying while there's a dislike for touching another person.

 

[Fino]

Yeah, a lot of them I only agreed with part of the statement so how do you know what the results are?

"Are you happy or sad sometimes?"
Yes.

Also, the beginning was about touch and then it became one of those online autism tests so I didn't finish. Is this also a screening for autism?

 

[Crossbreed]

I grew up in a very "huggy" family. I [ASD1] crave physical touch/affection (when relationally appropriate*), but still retain the lack of social instinct that is known to accompany autism. (My ASD3 daughter seeks it out, too.)

*Examples: wife, parents, children, sister.

 

[EllieMSC]

That's very true, and i think its interesting point and there's not really a measure that fully cover the partial aspect yet sorry that one of the few validated tools in the area and it was originally developed for children.

Yeah, a lot of them I only agreed with part of the statement so how do you know what the results are?

"Are you happy or sad sometimes?"
Yes.

Also, the beginning was about touch and then it became one of those online autism tests so I didn't finish. Is this also a screening for autism?

It’s more looking for patterns about how much you agree if that makes sense. The autistic quotient bit is because I need to compare the touch aspect to people who don’t have ASD. To reduce confounding biases I need to see if people who aren’t diagnosed but are at higher risk of ASD are more likely to experience difficulties with touch if that makes sense. So it’s not relevant if you have autism but more so if you don’t its not to diagnose anyone of course more look for potential risk factors that could skew my results. Hope that makes sense

 

[Vindicator Phoenix]

Cool survey! I've always enjoyed the introspective nature of psychological surveys!

 

[Vindicator Phoenix]

I have Asperger's. One time, I got a hug from someone on whom I had a "crush." I became tingly, giddy, and happy. That was probably one of my favorite moments, in all of junior high school!

 

[Streetwise]

That's very true, and i think its interesting point and there's not really a measure that fully cover the partial aspect yet sorry that one of the few validated tools in the area and it was originally developed for children.

It’s more looking for patterns about how much you agree if that makes sense. The autistic quotient bit is because I need to compare the touch aspect to people who don’t have ASD. To reduce confounding biases I need to see if people who aren’t diagnosed but are at higher risk of ASD are more likely to experience difficulties with touch if that makes sense. So it’s not relevant if you have autism but more so if you don’t its not to diagnose anyone of course more look for potential risk factors that could skew my results. Hope that makes sense

in your last sentence !do you mean you want to make sure that it will conclusively prove that what you say is fact and cannot be proven to be incorrect

the way the drug Herceptin( for breast cancer )was developed ,when one of the patients taking the drug wasn't cured ,so she was asked to leave the program !so the results would prove that it cured breast cancer! my perception of English comprehension is typical of moderate autism.

 

[Fino]

That's very true, and i think its interesting point and there's not really a measure that fully cover the partial aspect yet sorry that one of the few validated tools in the area and it was originally developed for children.

It’s more looking for patterns about how much you agree if that makes sense. The autistic quotient bit is because I need to compare the touch aspect to people who don’t have ASD. To reduce confounding biases I need to see if people who aren’t diagnosed but are at higher risk of ASD are more likely to experience difficulties with touch if that makes sense. So it’s not relevant if you have autism but more so if you don’t its not to diagnose anyone of course more look for potential risk factors that could skew my results. Hope that makes sense

I almost didn't understand then I did! Thank you! That's clever!

 

[EllieMSC]

I grew up in a very "huggy" family. I [ASD1] crave physical touch/affection (when relationally appropriate*), but still retain the lack of social instinct that is known to accompany autism. (My ASD3 daughter seeks it out, too.)

*Examples: wife, parents, children, sister.

That's really useful perspective and because there is a lack of research in this area the link that we are guessing may be there might be completely false and that's useful to know as well. Then we can move on with future research.

in your last sentence !do you mean you want to make sure that it will conclusively prove that what you say is fact and cannot be proven to be incorrect

the way the drug Herceptin( for breast cancer )was developed ,when one of the patients taking the drug wasn't cured ,so she was asked to leave the program !so the results would prove that it cured breast cancer! my perception of English comprehension is typical of moderate autism.

That’s a really interesting point in psychological research it’s quite rare to deal in absolute truths (it would be nice though) mine will mostly be correlational. In a sense I am trying to make my data more valid so kind of. But I won’t be excluding anyone based on their AQ score it’s more to describe the data. One of the problems in my data set is a lot of the participants are psychology students who on average have very few autistic traits compared to the general population, are very social and young so it’ll more likely prove that this research is not an absolute truth but I’ll only know for sure when I analyse the results. I hope that clears it up.
The herceptin thing is quite scary though it’s quite common though for big pharma to do that so who knows if the drugs we are prescribed work?

 

[onlything]

Could you share the results of the survey/the dissertation if you use it? I think that would be quite an interesting read.

 

[Gracey]

... I need to see if people who aren’t diagnosed but are at higher risk of ASD are more likely to experience difficulties with touch if that makes sense...

yes it does

Are any comorbid conditions taken into account?
OCD (transfer of germs)?