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Dissertation Help - Diabetes Type 1

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.

willow37

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi folks

I am a mother of two children with T1D. I am going into my final year of uni and its dissertation time. I want my dissertation subject to involve Diabetes T1 in children. Does anyone have any suggestions re the title for dissertation and I know the area is broad and I'm unsure which way to go?


If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
 
What course are you doing, and how does T1 in children fit into it? E.g. do you need to do a scientific spin on it, or more along the lines of day to day life with it, or what technology is available to help with it, or potential social problems such as coping with bullying/sleepovers/having to explain things to people and get school staff to comply etc etc.
 
Yeah give us some more detail. What course are you on?
 
Hi thanks for replying.

I am studying Early Childhood Studies Degree with the aim to progress to Masters in Psychology. My degree focuses on children 8 years and below.

I'm trying to establish an interesting spin on my dissertation but really cant decided on what angle to take it. I suppose what i'm asking for is any challenges that may have been present for yourselves or your children that would be worth investigation.

Ive have thought about:

The impact of T1 Diagnosis on childrens health and wellbeing
Good diabetes management: schools responsibility
One to One Support in Schools: A Valuable Resource for T1 DM Children

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
 
Hi folks

I am a mother of two children with T1D. I am going into my final year of uni and its dissertation time. I want my dissertation subject to involve Diabetes T1 in children. Does anyone have any suggestions re the title for dissertation and I know the area is broad and I'm unsure which way to go?


If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
Hi,
I know a dissertation has to focus on a specific question, not just general ideas. Could you think of a question related to siblings and diabetes? That would be quite niche and unique.
 
Practically I think managing diabetes in schools and childcare settings can be useful. Or ways to enable smaller children to go on play dates, parties etc without a parent present. I think that’s been the biggest impact for our daughter who was almost 9 when she was diagnosed and had just got used to being able to go and see local friends on her own and go on sleepovers. It’s a lot of responsibility to give another parent especially when they’re newly diagnosed and you’re less confident yourself in managing their diabetes.
 
How about spicing it up by reversing the common assumptions - Is a diagnosis with a long-term condition T1 good for you?

Does it promote resilience? Self awareness? Empathy? Multi-tasking? Numeracy? Strategic thinking? Planning? Working well under pressure? Negotiating skills? Problem solving? Relating well with others in authority? Teamwork?

Then also examine the geniune challenges too - increased risk of depression and disordered eating etc.
 
The impact of the suddenly vertically upward learning curve on adults associated with children diagnosed with T1. (ie not ONLY their parents)
Those children's relationships with their peer group.
Building trust in the children to allow others to help them when they need it.
The importance of recognisable routines. (which applies equally in autism)
 
Some great ideas here!
The only thing I could think of was something along the lines of Do T1 children really need 1 to 1 care in schools? E.g. there is a little one in the school I work at whose mum insisted that her child have one person to turn to if something is wrong, so they employed a TA especially for that purpose and sent her on a one day course to learn about diabetes. TA is already complaining that she can’t get a proper lunch break because she has to be “on call” all the time, and if she isn’t there then we midday supervisors have difficulty sometimes finding someone who can/is allowed to deal with it. They also get the school staff writing down in a book every blood test result, bolus amount and carb count - WHY? Yes the hospitals seem to advocate keeping detailed notes like that, and we still do to some degree, but I can get all the information I need just by going through the memory in daughter's meters when she gets home, why make school staff do it?

Whereas my daughter was not much older than that when diagnosed, it didn’t occur to me to even ask for a special person to deal with it, I think my daughter would have gone mad if she'd had someone following her around all the time, and I wanted her to learn to do as much as she possibly could with minimal supervision as quickly as possible. So her class teacher and a couple of general TAs managed between them (although I was already working there then and wasn’t hard to get hold of if something went wrong, so that might have changed things a bit!)

Good luck with your dissertation, I hope you manage to find a good theme!
 
Hi folks

I am a mother of two children with T1D. I am going into my final year of uni and its dissertation time. I want my dissertation subject to involve Diabetes T1 in children. Does anyone have any suggestions re the title for dissertation and I know the area is broad and I'm unsure which way to go?


If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
I.don't have a title, but also completnb.mybdissertation
Hi folks

I am a mother of two children with T1D. I am going into my final year of uni and its dissertation time. I want my dissertation subject to involve Diabetes T1 in children. Does anyone have any suggestions re the title for dissertation and I know the area is broad and I'm unsure which way to go?


If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
I am unable to help with a title. But am completing my own dissertation. Be careful what you chose to write about as access to many sources, primary and secondary may be limited due to library and other institutions being closed.Even when lock down is eased My dissertation is currentlg like a badly put together patchwork quilt...Everyone in my group had to make a change to their area of study. Saying that I have really enjoyed my newish unexpected topic. Good luck with your studies.
 
Having volunteered on a DUK family weekend, where I worked with the older siblings, I think it would be interesting to consider the impact on the whole family, especially siblings.
 
Thank you all so much for your input, it has really got me thinking about the need to narrow my research and that there are some really interesting avenues I could take. Given that I am a mother to a 3 year old and 6 year old with T1 you would assume I would be familiar with the interesting points you have mentioned - and to be honest everything mentioned we have as a family of 7 have experienced. I guess I'm in so deep that I'm not giving myself time to reflect.
Really appreciate everything, thanks everyone
 
Too easy for that to happen, may be why it didn't when we were all young and at school - we didn't have other things to occupy us, little things like eg work, home, family let alone what we're going to feed them ..... or if there's enough petrol in the car ...
 
My niece was diagnosed type 1 whilst at Primary school and I know my brother had hell of a time with the school, regular meetings and getting them to understand the importance of recording details of food and insulin provided etc. It does seem some educational authorities are more lax than others (I think budgets and liabilities come in here), as adults we often have days where we struggle with the condition but for a child, especially an under 8 it has got to be overwhelming and frightening not to have that adult who can make sense of it all. From my own experience looking into how schools care for children with diabetes, how do they strategise the risk of one child against another without discrimination, how do the explain to others about the condition to allow the child to be accepted (the extra support a child with diabetes receives can be seen as unfair advantage). Like you say it’s a very broad field and I wish you luck ☺️
 
How do you mean 'can be seen as unfair advantage' - seen by whom? I'd just tell them abruptly to try spending a day in my shoes before they utter such a comment, if I were one of the kid's parents. Plus what advantages did they imagine she was getting?
 
How do you mean 'can be seen as unfair advantage' - seen by whom? I'd just tell them abruptly to try spending a day in my shoes before they utter such a comment, if I were one of the kid's parents. Plus what advantages did they imagine she was getting?
I wasn’t trying to outcast anyone I was making a general statement. It’s easy to misinterpret a situation from poorly provided information
 
I'm sorry - I simply haven't a clue where you got the idea from.
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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