Strategies for engagement of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Reflections from a study in inclusive schools in Accra, Ghana

ABSTRACT

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are often excluded from research that concerns them due to diverse ethical and methodological issues. This paper provides strategies for how to include children with IDD as active participants of research, an issue which to date has received little attention in the research methods literature. In particular, we draw from our experiences of engaging with 16 children with IDD in a qualitative study that sought to understand their experiences in inclusive schools in Ghana. Using data collection methods comprising observations, the draw and write technique and interviews, we actively engaged children with IDD in the current research, effectively shifting common power dynamics between researcher and child. The paper identifies the successes and challenges we encountered while utilizing multiple methods with children with IDD and provide strategies and tips for researchers interested in applying these methods in the future. We believe the use of combined qualitative approaches or multiple methods may be a key strategy to secure rich and useful data from children with IDD that informs policy and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood disability research
• multiple methods
• pluralistic approaches
• intellectual and developmental disabilities
• qualitative research
• Ghana
• West Africa
• low-and middle-income contexts

Acknowledgements

Our warm thanks go to the children who participated in this study. We are also grateful to parents who gave consent and teachers and members of the school and district boards who welcomed and supported us to make the entire research process successful.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.