Interviewee

Dr Leslie Powell, Research Fellow, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coverntry University, UK.

Article

Cullen L., Barlow J., Cushway D., (2005) Positive touch, the implications for parents and their children with autism: an exploratory study. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 11(3):182-9.

Summary

Stasia Kail-Buckley talks with Dr Lesley Powell about her study exploring the experience of touch between children with autism and their parents. Dr Powell discusses the positive outcomes that autistic children were found to gain from touch therapy and the way in which this practical intervention can empower parents.

Transcript

Stasia Kail-Buckley: Today we are talking to Dr. Leslie Powell, Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University. We are here to discuss Leslie's research and subsequent article, 'Positive Touch: The Implications for Parents and their Children with Autism, An Exploratory Study.' Leslie, may we please begin with a short summary:

Leslie Powell: The aim of this particular study was to explore the experience of touch between parents and children with autism and that was before, during and after attending the program that involved massage, namely the training of the support program. And I wanted to know why would the experience of touch change during the course of the program or afterwards and would any change be maintained and at what point did any changes take place. And obviously from the information that we gained, I was able to develop a model of the process of touch through massage with this group of parents and children and we did this by interviewing parents before commencing the program, on completion and at follow-up stage.

Stasia Kail-Buckley: As this study was part of the wider program on the value of touch for autistic children, what was the main inspiration behind you focusing on the study of touch therapy and were you surprised by the outcome?

Leslie Powell: I mean I know [what] experts have to say on autism, but I am passionate about empowering parents and caring for children with all disabilities and children themselves and young adults with disability. By providing and developing interventions that involve some practical skills and some skills where self-mastery is available or able, whether self-healing is taking place and of course with a CAM element, that's complementary and alternative medicine and particularly massage of course and also the notion of positive touch. I think there's so much fear around this topic at the moment, particularly when children are involved. I think at the time when I did this particular study, I think this aspect in the literature had been overlooked. I suppose what was surprising really, was that some of the things were unexpected in terms of the response. I mean even parents themselves said they weren't sure how children were going to respond or you know, if they're going to cooperate, you know, with it.

Stasia Kail-Buckley: The lay perception is that autistic children are unable to be reached, forever in a world of their own. The results in your study are indeed amazing and lay to rest a lot of misconceptions about what stimuli autistic children can respond to. Were there any concerns about the children's reaction to this type of therapy?

Leslie Powell: No, I didn't have any real concerns or anxieties because we'd been doing this study for two, three years at that time and I was seeing very positive results and I believed in what we were doing in a way and we always, always take into consideration the parents and child's wishes. You know, if the children don't want to be touched or massaged then we don't do it, you know there are other ways of doing things and each of the therapists on the program were qualified in massage and they received training from myself to deliver the program and one of the key elements I think of this program is the delivery.

Stasia Kail-Buckely: The research indicated that there were some practical obstacles you can up against in regards to the participants with issues of their own. For example, health concerns and work requirements. How did you manage to succeed in getting such overall strong participation in the study?

Leslie Powell: It was interesting really, because the parents who actually completed the program, they appeared to have accepted their child's autism. They'd made a difference to help the relationship with the child in being open and honest with the child. They no longer worried about the behavior of the child, which is you know, a key issue for many parents and they had more humour. And in contrast, the parents that withdrew did appear to have more sort of feelings of distress at being able to make contact with their child, being able to get physically close to the child, that kind of saddened them in a way.

Stasia Kail-Buckley: Voices in research are predominately from people who can speak for themselves rather than the more vulnerable and harder to reach population. Did you want to talk to the children alone and get an insight from them, was there an opportunity to do this and if not, what were the obstacles that prevented you from talking to them?

Leslie Powell: There were three children on the program that had good verbal communication and they told us that they found the massage very relaxing and one of these children acknowledged that having massages before bed helped them to sleep and so you know and I think the fact that, in a way children were communicating. They were communicating by responding I suppose to the program and they were communicating to their parents, requesting the massage verbally and non-verbally.

Stasia Kail-Buckley: Have you any feedback on whether the importance of touch therapy has reached other parents and organizations and how has it made a difference in the world of autism?

Leslie Powell: I get a lot of feedback from lots of different places, a lot of positive feedback and a lot of positive feedback from parents who've been through and heard about it. And professionals more so, I think because they've been running a long time now and published and you know on the program and sort of showing that we're doing it kind of very professionally if you like. To try to get into organizations of autism, that's more difficult.

Stasia Kail-Buckley: Well Leslie thank-you very much, it was a pleasure talking to you today.

Leslie Powell: You're welcome.