Child-friendly Manner Research Articles

Teach Your Parents project

We started the Teach Your Parents project to explain the science behind climate change through comics in a child-friendly manner. The project team was my sister, Nandini Sundram (Grade 6), me, Abhimanyu Sundram (Grade 11) and our father, Sanjay Sundram. School-children after reading the comic created painting based on what they had learnt. Selected paintings were exhibited in an Art gallery in Ottawa. Over 700 children from India and Canada took part and the final exhibition was held from Feb to April 2024. We also exhibited robotics enabled pieces to further inform audiences about climate change.
 The success of the project and its potential to create a social impact is exciting. We want to continue this initiative to reach larger audiences. We see collaboration between young people and adults as a way forward to fight climate change.

P01 Development of a toolkit enabling schools and colleges to confidently support children and young people with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Introduction/BackgroundChildren and Young People (CYP) spend a considerable amount of time at school, college or other educational settings. Whilst most CYP with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) are able to access education, many require adaptations, awareness of their needs or specific support to enable them to fully engage in learning. Families of CYP with JIA have reported a lack of awareness and understanding and requested resources to enable schools to support their children in school. The aim of this work was to develop a School Toolkit to allow teachers and other school staff to confidently support CYP with JIA.Description/MethodUsing a network of parents of CYP with JIA, UK-based charity Juvenile Arthritis Research developed a series of resources aimed at schools, colleges, pre-schools and other educational settings. Given awareness of childhood arthritis is low, the Toolkit includes awareness-raising resources, aimed both at staff and all families connected to the school. Increased awareness can help improve diagnosis times and timely access to treatment in those not yet diagnosed. In addition, the Toolkit contains information about what JIA is, resources for schools to provide targeted interventions, and information on how schools can successfully support CYP with JIA. Finally, each Toolkit contains both a presentation for explaining arthritis to children in a classroom or group assembly setting, and a training presentation for delivery to staff, as well as digital copies of key materials and awareness-raising resources for distribution to parents and families.Discussion/ResultsIn the week after launching the new School Toolkit, over 20 kits were sent to schools in the UK, potentially providing information that arthritis affects children to over 20,000 families with a further 35 Toolkits in the subsequent month.Schools have advised they are using the resources in their settings, including giving lessons to children to explain what arthritis is, putting up posters highlighting the key signs and symptoms of JIA, and utilising the staff training resources. Feedback from schools was entirely positive, with one teacher reporting “Wow- it's fantastic, the student presentation is particularly impressive with how it translates all the key information in a child friendly manner.”Key learning points/ConclusionThe development and supply of a Toolkit specifically for use in schools and colleges has helped raise awareness that children get arthritis and provided resources to train and support school staff enabling them to confidently support CYP with JIA. Utilising the experience and skills of parents and teachers in the development of the Toolkit has ensured all resources are relevant and address the needs of both families and schools. Toolkits can be requested free of charge by schools in the UK from http://www.jarproject.org/toolkitAcknowledgementsThanks to the children, young people, families and schools involved in the development of this vital resource.

‘Alexa, Adv(ert)ise us!’

Digital assistants increasingly infiltrate the world of children. The way they function reminds us somewhat of playmates, nannies and tutors. So far, educators have only marginally dealt with this new media phenomenon, yet the use of smart speakers by young people offers many opportunities as well as challenges. These are elaborated in this article and classified in terms of media education. Firstly, we will address a definition of smart speakers and digital speech assistants, and then examine their use by means of usage data. We will then concentrate on examining the extent to which these smart technologies play a role in the environments of young people. What forms of advertising are there? What data do digital assistants collect? And finally, how can parents, educators and companies ensure that smart technologies are used in a child-friendly manner that complies with data protection regulations? Our aim is to nudge the phenomenon of smart speakers and speech assistants into the media-pedagogical focus. Dealing with the specific characteristics of smart speakers requires a high degree of (child) user competence. As we will show in the conclusion, there are further pedagogically beneficial approaches from the point of view of promoting advertising literacy.

57-OR: A Novel School-Based Obesity Prevention Program Improves Healthy Eating/Lifestyle among 5- to 7-Year-Olds

Background: The foundation for lifelong good health is laid in childhood. Schools can play a pivotal role in preventing obesity/type 2 diabetes with effective interventions. Methods: We devised a novel school-based program using a sticker based food diary (FD) and colorful 12-page story book to motivate young school children to adopt a healthier diet/lifestyle. This study to conducted among 1500 grade 1 and 2 students from 4 schools between March 2018- April 2019, to evaluate its effectiveness. During the first week(W1), each child self-monitored his/her food intake daily at home for a week, using the FD, and received a Smiley Face based Score (SFS) based on the healthiness of each meal. In the second week, class teachers read the story book (illustrating the physical and psychosocial effects of obesity and benefits of healthy lifestyle in a child friendly manner). In the third week(W3) children completed the FD again. Effectiveness of the program to improve healthy eating/lifestyle was assessed by comparing mean SFS between W1 and W3, and by anonymized graded-response and open response questionnaires completed by parents and class teachers. Results: Completed FDs were returned by 1029 students. Overall there was an improvement in healthy eating, with mean SFS increasing by 11.7% from W1 to W3 (51.3 ± 22.9 vs. 63.1 ± 24.2, p< 0.001). SFS improved >10% in all BMI categories. SFS improvement was more in boys (13.0 vs. 9.7, p=0.02), and in 2nd graders compared to 1st graders (13.1 vs. 10.3, p=0.045). Majority of responding parents (> 90%) and teachers (95%) strongly agreed/agreed that this program motivated children towards a healthier lifestyle and led to an observable improvement in food habits. Conclusion: This novel program led to a demonstrable improvement in healthy lifestyle among 5-7 year olds and was received favorably by parents and teachers. Based on these results and positive (ongoing) longer-term follow up data, wider implementation involving 750,000 children is planned for mid 2020. Disclosure S.N. Seneviratne: None. S. Sachchithananthan: None. P.S. Angulugaha Gamage: None. S. Ramamoorthy: None. R. Peiris: None. V.P. Wickramasinghe: None. N. Somasundaram: None. Funding World Diabetes Foundation (WDF15-1291)

Analyzing Drawings to Explore children’s Concepts of an Ideal School: Implications for the Improvement of children’s Well-Being at School

Because not much is known about children’s subjective well-being (SWB) in educational spaces, our objective was to analyze children’s drawings of their ideal school environment, emphasizing the importance of obtaining the children’s perspective. To do so, we analyzed Luxembourgish primary school children’s drawings (n = 150; age 10) using visual grounded theory methodology. The results were centered on 10 main underlying themes that indicated children’s conceptualizations of their dream school in which particular attention was paid to the design of the school buildings, playgrounds, and classrooms. Children’s written inputs showed the boundaries of visual expression, as they mentioned different desires beyond those conveyed by the drawings. In addition to fancy aesthetics of the school environment, material conditions such as playground facilities were found to be a significant part of the children’s dream schools. Our analyses offer meaningful insights into children’s perceptions of an educational environment that fosters well-being, thereby functioning as a blueprint for adults’ efforts to improve schools in a more child-friendly manner.

Therapeutic play as a qualitative data generation method: A critical reflection.

BackgroundChild-centred research requires researchers to develop research designs that will enable children to express their views in an ethical, appropriate and child-friendly manner and generate rigorous findings. These requirements challenge researchers to develop new methods to generate data with children, and the ‘younger the child, the more intense the challenge’.AimThe aim of this article was to describe and reflect on the use of therapeutic play as a data generation method by nurse researchers with young children in a child-centred qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual study using a multiple case study strategy.SettingThe study was conducted with young children attending an outpatient department at a public hospital in Gauteng.MethodsFour young children, purposively sampled, participated in six sessions, each based on therapeutic play grounded in the work of Oaklander’s Gestalt play therapeutic approach, facilitated by a nurse researcher. Critical reflection was made about the play therapeutic approach as a data generation method, based on its ability to generate useful data, its implications for data analysis and its ability to be child-enabling and child-centred.ResultsThe play therapeutic approach, as a data generation method, is capable of generating useful data and amplifying children’s voices in the process.ConclusionsThe nurse researcher needs to be highly skilled in this approach as it requires the ability to implement the specific play therapeutic approach in a safe and skilful manner.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PARENTING EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR THE STUDENTS’ PARENT TO SUPPORT THE CHILD-FRIENDLY EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

This study is about the importance of parenting education to give knowledge, understanding, and skills for both parents and the teachers in educating, guiding, parenting, and organizing the education provided by parents at home and children-friendly education at school. The purposes of this study as follows, to describe the process of implementation in parenting education program, to describe the process of evaluation in parenting education program, and describe the result of parenting education program. The subjects of this study are Ar-Rahman Darul Ilmi Elementary School teachers, and parents of the third-grade students who are involved in the implementation of parenting education program. The data collection techniques were conducted by observation, interview, and documentation. The result of the study shows that: 1) the concept of parenting education program activities include the setting of time, place of implementation, media, and the facilities of school used in the implementation of parenting conducted by the administrators and teachers. 2) The implementation of the parenting education program is formed by the meetings of the parents while the discussion is prioritizing on how to educate by preceding the right of children in learning. 3) Socializing child-friendly learning media which can be used to guide the children. 3) Evaluating the parenting program by using interview method based on the material which has been given in parenting education program. 4) The result of child-friendly manner at home and school. 5) The continuity of child-friendly parenting education program which will be applied on an annual basis.

Audit of child maltreatment medical assessments in a culturally diverse, metropolitan setting

ObjectiveChild maltreatment (CM) is a major public health problem globally. While there is evidence for the value of medical examination in the assessment of CM, little is known about the...

Usability Testing of a Computerized Communication Tool in a Diverse Urban Pediatric Population

Developed in Norway, Sisom is an interactive, rigorously tested, computerized, communication tool designed to help children with cancer express their perceived symptoms/problems. Children travel virtually from island to island rating their symptoms/problems. While Sisom has been found to significantly improve communication in patient consultations in Norway, usability testing is warranted with US children prior to further use in research studies. The objective of this study was to determine the usability of Sisom in a sample of English- and Spanish-speaking children in an urban US community. A mixed-methods usability study was conducted with a purposive sample of healthy children and children with cancer. Semistructured interviews were used to assess healthy children's symptom recognition. Children with cancer completed 8 usability tasks captured with Morae 3.3 software. Data were downloaded, transcribed, and analyzed descriptively. Four healthy children and 8 children with cancer participated. Of the 44 symptoms assessed, healthy children recognized 15 (34%) pictorial symptoms immediately or indicated 13 (30%) pictures were good representations of the symptom. Six children with cancer completed all tasks. All children navigated successfully from one island to the next, ranking their symptom/problem severity, clicking the magnifying glass for help, or asking the researcher for assistance. All children were satisfied with the aesthetics and expressed an interest in using Sisom to communicate their symptoms/problems. A few minor suggestions for improvement and adjustment may optimize the use of Sisom for US children. Sisom may help clinicians overcome challenges assessing children's complex symptoms/problems in a child-friendly manner.

Development of hand–arm bimanual intensive training (HABIT) for improving bimanual coordination in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

Constraint-induced (CI) movement therapy is a physical intervention that has been receiving increasing attention in pediatric rehabilitation. So far, the evidence suggests that practice associated with CI therapy may improve impaired unimanual hand function in some children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). However, CI therapy has several important limitations. Most importantly, children with hemiplegia have impairments in bimanual coordination beyond their unilateral impairments. Thus, an intervention approach to increase functional independence during activities of daily living by using both hands in cooperation is needed. Here we briefly review the etiology of hemiplegic CP, describe studies of pediatric CI therapy efficacy in relation to the etiology, discuss the conceptual and practical limitations of CI therapy for this population, and describe bimanual coordination impairments in children with hemiplegia. Finally, we introduce a new intervention for children with hemiplegia, hand-arm bimanual intensive training (HABIT), to address the limitations of CI therapy and to improve bimanual coordination. HABIT retains the two major elements of pediatric CI therapy (intensive structured practice and child-friendliness). The proposed methodology demonstrates that extensive targeted practice can be provided in a child-friendly manner without using a physical restraint, although the efficacy of such an approach remains to be determined.

Guest Editorial

Dyspnea in children has important physical and psychosocial impact. It is useful to define the quality of the dyspnea and quantify its magnitude in a child-friendly manner. Through careful history taking and physical examination, a targeted investigation can lead to identification of the cause and potential treatment. This article provides a framework for the clinical approach to dyspnea in children, including important information to gather during the history, physical assessment, how to quantify dyspnea, and choice and use of laboratory measurements.