We have been asked by,  Rachel Donaldson , at Master’s Student at the University of  Edinburgh to help her find parents of children on the autism spectrum to take part in a survey!

Donaldson writes “OkCupid, a popular dating site, as part of the many quizzes you can take to find your ‘match’, published a (flawed) version of the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire. Broad autism phenotype is mild personality, language and behavioural ‘autism-like’ traits in individuals without a diagnosis of autism.

This led to Cynthia Kim (Musings of an Aspie) writing about the concept of broad autism phenotype on her popular blog about ‘Life on the Spectrum’. It is here that I first saw individuals on the autism spectrum and parents of individuals with autism discussing the concept of broad autism phenotype and how it impacted them. And such, a research project began.

Over the last 30 years there has been an increasing amount of research into broad autism phenotype which has mainly involved parents and siblings of individuals with autism and focused on similar areas to autism research. However, there has been little research into whether parents are generally aware of the concept of broad autism phenotype and how they feel about the idea; whether they feel it is an important area for research; and whether it impacts upon them and their relationship with their child(ren) with autism. This study aims to address these questions. If you are a parent of an individual with autism and are able to assist with this research please follow the link.

No previous knowledge of broad autism phenotype is required: https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/parental-views-of-bap”

If you have any queries please put them in the comments section below.  We will ask Ms Donaldson to reply.