Match activities to developmental stage
For effective health education outreach to children, programs and classes must be delivered in an age-appropriate manner, says Beth White, CCLS, child life coordinator at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Following is a list of activities and teaching tools that promote learning in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence used by the health care facility to plan outreach classes:
• Early childhood (3-6).
— picture books, maps, drawings, models, and puppets;
— make-believe play;
— learning one step at a time and limiting steps to no more than three;
— use of concrete learning tools that promote recognition rather than recall;
— information that concretely and simply tells why the behavior is important.
• Middle childhood (7-11).
— picture books, maps, drawings, and models;
— interactive learning with peers through hands-on opportunities and role-playing;
— mastery, working toward an outcome through decision making;
— motivation, working toward an outcome that avoids competition and public evaluation;
— information that tells children concretely why a behavior is important.
• Adolescents (12-18).
— programming that promotes a higher level of thinking (abstract, reasoning, deduction, decision making);
— group interaction that limits group competition;
— information that tells teens how a behavior is going to help them today and in relation to their future goals/career;
— opportunities to challenge beliefs and values while sharing own knowledge;
— assignments that promote planning and monitoring progress in relation to goals.
Sources
For more information on tailoring education for the prevention of risky behavior to meet the needs of children, contact:
• Mary Margaret Gottesman, RN, PhD, CPNP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing, The Ohio State University College of Nursing, 1585 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43210. Telephone: (614) 292-4989. E-mail: [email protected].
• Patrick Pasquariello Jr., MD, Director, Diagnostic Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 34th and Civic Center Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19104. Telephone: (215) 590-4020. E-mail: [email protected].
• Beth White, CCLS, Child Life Coordinator, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, 1405 Clifton Road N.E., Atlanta, GA 30322. Telephone: (404) 315-2458. E-mail: [email protected].
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content