Dr. Fiona McCaffrey:

The action research approach Deputy Ó Murchú mentioned means that we are constantly evaluating and drawing qualitative and quantitative data from the work we do. We evaluate those data and put that evaluation back into the system again. We see improvements and we see skills develop. From that, we have opportunities to publish our work. We have spoken about our work nationally and internationally. Members of the centre are members of special interest groups for professional bodies such as the British Educational Research Association. I review abstracts for the International Society for Autism Research. We are very plugged in to the research world. The platform that we have for this is confidence in our model and in the good work we do. That is enormously attractive for practitioner researchers, which is essentially what we are in Middletown. We are practitioners and trainers but there is also a huge research component. That is what makes us different.