In combing through different blogs, while research my topic on mental retardation, I find that some blogs are definitely legitimate forms of scholarship or news. If you are looking at a blog such as Parenting Special Needs (http://special-needs.families.com/blog/category/420) Kristyn Crow has cited the APA works that shed used to backup her findings while doing her research. Also, another example of this and she clearly stated that “The information on PKIDs' Blog is for educational purposes only and should not be considered to be medical advice.” (http://blog.pkids.org/tag/mental-retardation/), but she also includes the links to backup her findings.
Then, on the other hand some blogs are just a group of people sharing personal stories, chatting and trying to get advice on an issue to help find a solution. An example of this blog would be “I Am a Mother of a Mentally Retarded Child” (http://www.experienceproject.com/groups/Am-A-Mother-Of-A-Mentally-Retarded-Child/103616).
So, basically a blog can either be a legitimate for of scholarship or news, but it can also just be a group of people sharing real life personal experiences. One just needs to research the site and find out which type of blog it is.
Works cited:
Kristyn Crow (August 2011 to present). Parenting special needs. Retrieved from
Emily Willingham.,The information on PKIDs'. Retrieved from
Experience Group. I Am a Mother of a Mentally Retarded Child”. Retrieved from
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post on blogs. I thought I posted commentary about the blogs here, but it is gone...so I will post again and hopefully this time it sticks:
1. Be careful with Kristyn Crow's blog. She is a children's book author and freelance writer without a psychology background or experience as a practitioner who works with developmentally disabled children. Because of that, she should really cite her sources to increase the credibility of her information. Also, the blog is full of ads. The person who made this blog wants to use it to generate money for themselves, and it seems that they do not really put in a lot of effort in fact-checking. The links that are provided in Crow's posts either lead to ads, silly tests, or nothing at all. I found no APA citations of anything in her blog posts.
2. The "I Am A Mother of a Mentally Retarded Child" online support group really is not a support group at all. If it was, then it would be password protected so that people would feel more comfortable posting about sensitive topics, and would keep out the "trolls" who post highly inappropriate, rude comments to their posts. The moderator of this website is not doing anything to provide advice or monitor the posts and comments. As we have no idea who is providing "advice" to these mothers, the advice that they provide may be completely false. So we have to look at this blog with some skepticism. If someone wanted to find examples of mothers' concerns and questions in regard to their disabled children, however, this would be a good place to find evidence of those questions and concerns.
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum