Southampton Education School, University of Southampton

Sarah joined the Southampton Education School’s Centre for Social Justice and Inclusive Education in January 2011 from the University of Birmingham where she was a member of the Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs Department and Deputy Director of the Autism Centre for Education and Research. She has significant research experience in disability related projects and particular interests in the use of innovative technologies for children with autism and the views and experiences of disabled children and their families. Following a PhD in developmental psychology at the University of Nottingham, Sarah has led and managed research encompassing a range of methodological and analytical approaches, using qualitative and quantitative techniques, and is skilled in the development and application of child-centred methodologies for accessing the views of children with special educational needs. She is currently a partner on the COSPATIAL project funded by the European Commission (€1.65M) which explores the use of innovative technologies for supporting social skills and collaborative working for children with and without autism (2009-12). Previous projects have included research on using immersive and desktop Virtual Reality for supporting social skills and understanding for children on the autism spectrum, and researching the ‘voices’ of disabled children about their experiences of mainstream and specialist education in the UK.

• Inclusive design, development, application and evaluation of innovative technologies for children on the autism spectrum
• Educational provision for disabled children and children with special educational needs
• Assistive technologies for children, young people and adults
• Family perspectives on educational provision and supporting children with special educational needs
• Young people’s views on sensitive or difficult topics
• Description and evaluation of ‘best practice’ in educational provision and assessment for children and young people on the autism spectrum
• Participatory approaches to research
• Ethical considerations in research especially regarding the involvement of disabled children and young people
• Inclusive methods for accessing the views of children and young people with disabilities or SEN

Examples of Recent Funded Research

2009 – 2012 Communication and Social Participation: Collaborative Technologies for Interaction And Learning (COSPATIAL)

2008 – 2010 Extended Services Provision in a large urban Local Authority: Phase Three Evaluation

2008 International review of the literature of evidence of best practice provision in the education of persons with autistic spectrum disorders

2006 - 2008 Inclusive design and development of virtual environments for social understanding of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

2006 – 2007 Understanding of epilepsy by children and young people with, or without, epilepsy

2006 Duty to promote Disability Equality

2004 – 2006 Experiences of disabled children and their families – phases 1 & 2

Primary research group:  Social Justice and Inclusive Education (SJIE) Research Centre (Nind)

Research project