Interested in participating?
Thank you for your interest in our research. We are regularly running studies that look at children and adolescents’ ability to interact with others – and are always looking for parents/caregivers who are interested in having their children participate in studies.
Please have a look at our current studies to see if we are running a study that your child could participate in right away. As well, you could sign up your child on our future contact list so that we can give you a call when a study is being conducted that your child is the right age for. Please note that signing up for future contact does not mean that you are obliged to participate, it just means that a lab member will give you a call to ask if you are interested once your child turns a certain age. Thank you for your consideration, this type of research would not be possible without the generous contribution of time and support of families in our local community.
What are our studies like?
Our studies are non-evaluative and game-like so that children/adolescents have fun while they participate. For those studies that are run in our lab, your child would work (typically, individually) with a research assistant. The activities during the study vary, depending on the research aim, but could involve activities such as watching video clips and answering questions, generating responses to various communicative scenarios, answering questions on a questionnaire, recalling information they were asked to hold in mind, completing a task on a computer or tablet.
We typically book parents/caregivers and their children for an hour session so there is enough time to explain the study and make sure children are comfortable with the research environment before beginning. Most studies only involve one visit to the lab. The layout of our lab is such that you are able to view your child’s activities during the visit.
We also run some studies online, which are either done independently through an online program or survey platform – or through a scheduled online meeting platform.
After your child participates in a study, they will receive a small toy or gift card as appreciation of their time. Once the data for the study your child has participated in has been collected, families will receive a summary of the results/implications of the study (i.e., either through a letter or through our newsletter).
All of our studies have been reviewed and have received ethical approval from the University of Waterloo’s Research Ethics Board and you will be informed on the specific procedures for the individual studies prior to agreeing to participation.
How long do studies take?
Our studies take between 20 and 45 minutes (depending on the specific study). We typically book parents and children for an hour-long session so that there is enough time to explain the study and make sure the children are comfortable in the testing environment before beginning. Our current studies only require one visit to the lab.
How to sign up for study participation
There are several ways parents/caregivers can sign up their child to participate:
- If you would like to be notified when a study opens up for youth the same age as your child(ren), please complete the Join our Participant Database form. Signing up for our database does not obligate you to participate in a study, it means that we will contact you with information about studies that your children are eligible to participate in.
- If your child’s age falls within the age range of a current study, please feel free to email us at childresearch@uwaterloo.ca. We will then send you information about the study, including information on how to self-book a time to come into lab (if it is an in-lab study).
If you would like more information about any of our studies or more information about how to get involved or what is entailed, please contact us by email atchildresearch@uwaterloo.ca.
What will I receive after participating?
After your child participates in a study, he/she will receive a small toy as appreciation for their time. Once all the data for the study your child participated in has been collected, you will be sent a letter explaining the results and implications of that particular study.
There are a number of pages on our website that you may find of interest:
- On our Take-home points page we provide brief summaries of the various findings that have come from studies in our lab (maybe ones your child has participated in!)
- On our Ask a Researcher page we outline a program where parents/caregivers ask us general questions about children/adolescents’ socio-communicative abilities. We post previous questions and corresponding responses from our graduate student researchers.
- Our Suggested books page we provide suggestions for books that cover some of the topics we study in our lab.
- We generate short summaries of student researchers’ work on our Featured Research page.