In 2023, Sparkle was excited to collaborate with Cardiff University's School of Psychology, providing opportunities for postgraduate students to conduct their research projects within a real-world setting, and learn first-hand about children with complex needs.
This collaboration increases independent research on Sparkle services, providing the charity with valuable data on the impact of our services, while also providing Masters students with practical and rewarding research experiences.
Two recent MSc students developed and piloted a new method for evaluating the impact of Sparkle's leisure activities on the children's emotional wellbeing and social relationships. Although their results were not statistically significant, likely due to the small number of participants, it was encouraging to see positive emotions and positive interactions between children and leisure staff in particular. Similarly, there were few negative emotions or interactions between children and their peers. We were delighted to find that this method of observing the children was acceptable to children and staff, and proved to be reliable. We look forward to trying this method with a larger group of children over a longer period, to help us further evaluate the impact of Sparkle services.
The students clearly found the experience to be beneficial and enjoyable, sharing the below feedback:
"I learnt a lot about the process, specifically planning and conducting research in collaboration with a service. It made me realise I would like to pursue research in the future as a career and doing this within a charity like Sparkle seems particularly interesting to me. It was also enjoyable as I felt that the Sparkle staff were very welcoming, helpful and supportive throughout the project. I would definitely recommend conducting research with Sparkle to other researchers."
"I really enjoyed working with Sparkle for my dissertation project. I had not experienced an environment like Sparkle before which offers such amazing leisure provision to children and young people with disabilities. I found it inspiring to see the passion that all members of staff had in making sure every child was cared for, and how they tailored activities based on the child's interests. I also enjoyed the process of collecting and analysing my own data, and working with Sparkle has given me more insight into first-hand data collection and developing my own coding scheme. Sparkle staff went above and beyond to ensure we were supported and I would definitely recommend conducting research with Sparkle."
We are now excited to continue our partnership with Cardiff University and looking forward to two new MSc students commencing their research during the 2024/25 academic year.
If you have any questions about Sparkle's research work or would like to discuss opportunities for collaboration, please contact our Research and Development Officer on research@sparkleappeal.org.