Developmental disabilities are problems associated with children from conception that are detected at that stage and affects them in their growth curve all their life. Their consequences could be severe and long-term. They may also be physical disabilities like blindness or mental like autism (Colvert et al., 2015). Others, like down-syndrome, are both physical and mental at the same time. These disabilities affect the general physical and mental development of a person and can lead to disabilities in learning. These disabilities are unpredictable in life and as such, should be an issue of concern to the general population. Understanding people with developmental disabilities and accepting them in the society is key to helping them mingle with the rest without the fear of a feeling of discrimination against them.
Persons with disabilities are generally frustrated if they cannot be accepted in the society and feel cared for like the rest of the population, therefore, researching on their care and needs forms a basis of this project (Simplican et al., 2015). Having grown up in a society that generally discriminated against these people, there is a feeling that this group of people is not generally understood, hence, the social difference. It is, therefore, imperative that the society is made to understand that their disabilities are developmental, and as such, anyone can be born with such disabilities. Researching on them, therefore, is to create public awareness of the general types of these disabilities and their probable causes. This should lead to societal acceptance and thereby extend some humane care to them while handling them. It would, as a result, be beneficial not only for personal knowledge enhancement but also for the general population knowledge. Individually, such research informs one on the loopholes that still exist for purposes of future research.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
For purposes of future research, a sample population will be ideal so that the specific approaches are applied to help achieve the desired results. A sample population, other than being representative of the larger population is also easier to use. Since the target population is not concentrated in one geographical location, and finding them in one go might never be realistic, random sampling would be necessary. In using this method, therefore, arriving at the survey results will be easier and simpler. In sampling this population, we will use their ages, gender and physical locality to determine who to interview and who to leave out. People with developmental disabilities do not generally suffer common problems based on either, age, gender, or their residential areas. That is why these variables should be used in sampling the population so as to get an accurate result.
In carrying out this research, both qualitative and quantitative approaches would be applicable (Mertens, 2014). Qualitatively, we need to find an in-depth understanding of this category of people, their thoughts, and opinions on their general relation with society as a whole. The qualitative research designs of phenomenological, grounded theory, ethnographic and case study viewpoints will all be applicable in this case (Smith, 2015). The survey results from the qualitative approach, in such a case, would be very useful in building certain hypothesis and answers during the quantitative analysis. In this research, however, qualitative approach is more valuable as it goes deeper in understanding the problem as opposed to comparative analysis in the quantitative approach. Qualitative approach, therefore, explains the feelings of the sample population that will give a detailed explanation of the results obtained.
References
Colvert, E., Tick, B., McEwen, F., Stewart, C., Curran, S. R., Woodhouse, E., & Ronald, A. (2015). Heritability of autism spectrum disorder in a UK population-based twin sample. JAMA Psychiatry , 72 (5), 415-423.
Mertens, D. M. (2014). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods . United Kingdom: Sage Publications.
Simplican, S. C., Leader, G., Kosciulek, J., & Leahy, M. (2015). Defining social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: An ecological model of social networks and community participation. Research in developmental disabilities , 38 , 18-29.
Smith, J. A. (Ed.). (2015). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods . New York: Sage Publishers
