Marketing Research
Type / educational Application for autism children
Research Q: is there a need to develop educational app for autism children?
Research Overall Goal:
Help the children with autism in their daily life by developing an educational app.
Research Objectives:
• Targeting children between 5yrs to 12yrs.
• Identifies this particular group of people need and preferences in term of education.
• Identify the autism technology daily use.
• Test the acceptance of the app among autism children.
• Identify the main competitors and similar apps to compare the similarities and differences in order develop the app.
Research design:
The type of methods will be used on the research:
• Focus group.
• Interview. ( parents )Background
Autism, a condition referred to as autistic disorder in the brain, is a lifelong developmental disability affecting social and communicative functioning which make communication with other people is limited and complicated. Treatment for autism could be by prescribing of drugs that used as an adjunct to treat specific symptoms, but it can't treats autism as a whole. So the more effective way of dealing with it is by using methods of changing maladaptive behavior and developing learning and communication skills to make them blend more in the society. Such as Behavior modification approaches, educationally based approaches, speech therapy, parent skill training, and adaptive skill training are generally part of an individualized multimodal treatment plan.
Literature review
By developing the application, it becomes a method used in Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment for autistic children.
The National Standards Project states:
"There are 14 Established Interventions that have been thoroughly researched and have sufficient evidence for us to confidently state that they are effective."
The comprehensive behavioral treatment is the most effective treatment found based on the National Autism Center located in United States. According to Lovaas, O. I. (2002) the intensive early behavioral treatment is a must to control and develop the essential skills (communication, social skills, activities of daily living, vocal language, self-management skills, and motor skills) which is consist of the involvement of the autistic children with their surrounding environment.
A numerous of researches focused in the benefit role this kind of treatment. Kate Miller-Wilson, ABA for autism. (2013) indicated it shows improvement in learning, social skills, cognitive function, self-help skills, and communication, build a solid and trustful relations with others. SJ Rogers - Journal of autism and developmental disorders, (1996) state it is a way for spending a quality time with the parents, and learn new things.
There are some downfalls toward this technique. Ms.P McGrath - American Journal (1992) says it need a huge commitment and patient as it turned out it is time consuming. It's frustrating for parents to spend 25-40 hours a week in training their child. Especially if the parents have other children to care of.
Another throwback according to Ms.P McGrath is Parental Involvement. The parents must learn the teaching and techniques in order to can regularly help their child work though them, and very busy and overwhelmed by it. Parental involvement consider a disadvantage if they are not willing to participate. It effect the relationships and the progress of the autistic children
Discussion:
Concliusion:
Reverences:
Bibliography American Psychiatric Association. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994. Bryson, S. E. ‘‘Epidemiology of Autism: Overview and Issues Understanding.'' In Donald J. Cohen and Fred R. Volkmar eds., Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, 2nd edition. New York: Wiley, 1997. Green, Gina. ‘‘Evaluating Claims about Treatment for Autism.'' In Catherine Maurice, Gina Green, and Stephen Luce eds., Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals. Austin, TX: Pro Ed, 1996. Harris, Sandra, and Jan Handleman, eds. Preschool Education Programs for Children with Autism. Austin, TX: Pro Ed, 1994. Bryna Siegel
RQ1/ What motivates people to volunteer at arts festivals?
RQ2/ How do arts festival volunteers differ from volunteers in other forms of activity?
Background
The trend for larger, bigger- budget, and more diverse festival and event experiences calls
for increased professionalism and accountability by event producers, so consequently there
is higher competition and demand for experienced, qualified events professionals (which are
scarce) whilst the demand for volunteers has never been stronger (Getz, 1997). A
‘volunteer' may be defined as a person who provides a service of their own free will without
expecting remuneration (ibid: 98). Many festivals and events and particularly those within the
private sector, rely heavily on the roles of volunteers to provide direction, planning and
successful coordination, and indeed many festivals have experienced cycles of success and
decline, or even demise, partly due to problems with volunteers (Getz and Frisby,1988). This
may be in part due to the increasing demand for the [relatively] limited supply of volunteers
leading to problems with recruitment of required numbers, but it is often due to key
volunteers ‘burning out' or ‘rusting out' (Getz, 1997). ‘Burning out' refers to attrition through
stressful environments such as large crowds and loud noise, overwork, lack of direction
and/or tangible reward, whilst ‘rust out' refers to lack of sustained interest due to boring,
unfulfilling tasks (ibid).
In Gibson & Connell (2011), from the results of a three-year longitudinal study conducted on
480 rural festivals (selected from a wider database of 2856 festivals across Australia), they
determined that the average volunteer contributed approximately 24.9 days' worth of labour
(throughout the planning stages and the actual running of the event) which, across 480
festivals equated to 8600 days or 23 years' worth of labour. When considering that the
average festival employs an average of 20 volunteers (several enlisting many more) then by
applying this estimate to the researcher's entire database, it suggests a staggering
1,422,000 days or 3900 years' worth of labour (ibid). This clearly illustrates that without this
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invaluable contribution, many festivals simply could not exist! Hence a greater understanding
of volunteers' motivations to attend particular types of festivals along with a greater
understanding of their expectations of their festival experience will aid in managing retention
rates of these valuable and often highly experienced human resources. More knowledge
here will allow festival directors to more easily match the volunteer's festival experience with
their expectations which should encourage loyal and repeated service. This in turn serves to
foster the long term sustainability of festivals and their many benefits to society.
Literature review
A number of common themes, particularly altruism, egoism and self-actualisation emerge
repeatedly throughout the wider literature reviewed. There is much contention about
altruism, for example Smith (as cited in Bharadia, 1986) argues that there is no such thing as
true altruism and states that there are three interacting incentives behind motivation to
volunteer; tangible rewards such as goods or money; interpersonal and intangible awards
(prestige/friendships) and purposive incentives including achievement and self-fulfilment.
Maslow's (1943) Theory of Human Motivation links a hierarchy of human needs to
motivations for human behaviour in fulfilling physiological needs, and the need for safety,
love, self-esteem and self-actualisation and his theory is underpinning in the reviewed
literature on volunteering, as is Serious Leisure Theory (Stebbins,1982; 1996; Pi et al. 2014)
which argues that volunteering roles in which the volunteer both acquires and employs
specific experience related skills can be classified as serious leisure. This is likened to the
motivations of participants in a marathon, such is the similarity in the involvement (or
immersion) with the event experience. Also underpinning is Social Exchange Theory
(Homans,1958) which suggests that volunteers might begin volunteering with altruistic
intentions but then begin evaluating their intention to continue volunteering against any
perceived lack of tangible reward. All of the themes, concepts, arguments and
methodologies identified in the wider volunteerism literature are highly interesting, insightful
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and extremely relevant as they foster development of essential theoretical frameworks for
developing more accurate typologies and phenomenologies. These, when applied can foster
better matching of a volunteer's expectations of their festival experience with their actual
festival experience. Whilst there is a vast amount of academic literature and seminal works
available on the topic of volunteerism and motivation, an extensive literature search revealed
very little literature on arts-festival specific volunteer studies and no such studies were found
in Australia.
A festival/event specific study was conducted in the USA by Lee et al. (2007) focussing on
volunteer motivations affecting intentions to continue volunteering and found that altruistic
value, ego enhancement, personal development and community concern had significant
positive impacts on a person's intention to volunteer. Although their methodology involves
intricate structural equation models and requires very large samples, they developed a
reliable model which might be adapted and employed within the narrower focus of studying
volunteer motivations for a specific event typology. Also in the USA, after analysing the
research on volunteerism, Clary et al. (1992) developed a very useful Volunteer Functions
Inventory (VFI) containing thirty reasons why people volunteer and measured six primary
functions identified as common themes from their reviewed literature, those being; values,
understanding, careers, social, esteem and protective (ibid: 335-340). Clary et al. (1998)
suggest that the extent to which the volunteering experiences fulfil these functions relates to
satisfaction with volunteer activities. In Israel, Shye (2010) developed a new approach to
volunteer studies by interviewing and surveying a proportionate random sample of the
general populace rather than only known volunteers, and this methodology has huge
potential to assist with developing strategies for volunteer recruitment from a previously
unstudied, untapped and massive sample of latent volunteerism possibilities.
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Discussion
Many theories have been proposed to explain what motivates people to volunteer. The
literature covers a wide variety of such theories from an equally wide variety of disciplines
and suggests a complex system of antecedents that are different depending on the
characteristics of the event or the organisation. That is, it must be accepted that events will
attract different types of volunteers depending on many variables and it has been suggested
that event volunteers are substantially different to other kinds of volunteers and that they
may have some unique volunteer traits, although there is no research to support this (Getz,
1997; 2012). This observation may not be supported by research but it is supported by this
author from many hours of personal volunteering experiences at a wide variety of event
typologies. It is quite reasonable to assume that arts-festival volunteers may very well have
motivations and expectations which are different to those who volunteer at sporting or
political events for example. Research in this field is needed as there is very little (recent and
in general) arts/cultural festival-specific volunteer studies in the literature, most of that
available within the tourism and events discourse focussing predominantly on motivations for
volunteering at special sporting events. Case studies of the Olympic Games being the most
prolific (e.g. Elstad, 1996; Kemp, 2002; Reeser et al., 2005; Karkatsoulis et al., 2005).
Conclusion
Although arts and cultural festivals will always be an integral part of societies and are often
funded by government grants, they usually depend on volunteer resources to be run
successfully and sustainably. Matters pertaining to human resource management are
pertinent when considering that the carrot or stick approaches may not be taken seriously by
volunteers. McGregor's (1960) Theory Y supports the belief that humans will always strive
for self-actualisation and can be motivated accordingly, and this is the only appropriate
approach to managing volunteers. Therefore, an accurate understanding of their motivations
to volunteer and their expected festival experience will help facilitate this symbiosis.
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There is a need to develop event specific volunteer typologies possibly within the spectrum
of altruism and egoism, including all the major themes identified by previous research as a
continuum between these two poles. More research on the perceived benefits of roles and
tasks assigned is also required in order to develop a similar typology scale for matching
volunteers with certain roles. Whilst such a model would have valuable practical applications
for Human Resource managers across the wider conventional employment industries, it is
especially essential for applied events practitioners for better managing recruitment and
retention of volunteer resources which are critical to the viability and success of any festival.