Our research team is always thinking about you. We've all been in high school. We all realize how sleepy you can feel on Saturday mornings and how it must feel to give up precious hours of sleep and relaxation to participate in our study. We have thought about how strange it must feel for researchers to come into your house and "study" you and your families. We realize that some of you probably feel like you are under a microscope. Some of you may feel frustrated, like we expect you to represent all adolescents with spina bifida. Others might feel like we focus too much on a small part of your lives. We know that each of you is unique and none of you is the "typical" adolescent or the "typical" person with spina bifida. You have unique thoughts, beliefs, and abilities that no one else in the world has, and many of those qualities have nothing to do with spina bifida at all!

      Here's the thing…that's exactly what we need to learn about. We want your opinions. We want to know about your experiences. Most importantly, we want to know what aspects of your life have helped form you into the person that you  are. As psychologists, we hope to use that information so we can design better services for other people down the road. We can pass your opinions along. What  you share with us can have a direct impact on the lives of others. This is your  chance to make your voices heard. We continue to value the contribution you are  making to future generations of people with spina bifida and their  families.    

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      We hope you know what a difference you are making!