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Other factors that influence readiness or learning are the child’s and the family characteristics, the income level of the child’s household, the child’s parents education, the family structure, and the presence or absence of the child’s opportunities to participate in group activities with 1 OFF Our target community is 5-11 year old age group, and a combination of behavioral theory and developmental theory is optimal for teaching this topic. In behavioral theory, teachers can observe and identify the food habits of children at different age levels.
It is also possible to figure out the quality of the food consumed by different GE groups, gender, and socio-economic group. For example, the quality of the diet consumed by the children from poor families may be high in calorie and low in nutrients, while the food consumed by the children from an upper class family may be more balanced and richer in nutrients. Vocabulary, communications skills, attention span, and grasping power vary with the developmental level. Therefore, the selection of teaching tools such as language, pictures, handouts, and lectures need to be suitable for the developmental level within the targeted group.
The Nutrition and Weight Status objectives within Healthy People 2020 reflect strong science supporting the health benefits of eating a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy body weight. One Healthy People 2020 objective is to increase the proportion of schools that offer nutritious foods and beverages outside of school (Healthy People 2012). The rationale for using this Healthy People 2020 objective is to promote and encourage schools to offer less high calorie/sweetened food and beverages such as potato chips and soda pops to its students, thereby increasing healthier choices by offering healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables.
The above Healthy People 2020 goal of Nutrition and Weight Status aligns with The Alma Tat’s Health for All Global Initiative goals of: 1) Education about health problems and the means to prevent or control them and 2) Improved food supply and adequate nutrition for the population (Manure & Smith, 2009, p. 116). The HAPPEN objectives and Alma Tat’s Health For All Global Initiative share common goals as both of them encourage education on foods that are healthy to consume by addressing individuals behavior as well as exploring ways to provide that food through different means (school lunches).
We developed four behavioral goals for out proposed teaching plan: 1 . Kids will learn the importance of incorporating 5 servings of fruits and veggies daily; they will learn about the significance of “rainbow foods” 1 . The richly pigmented foods in these color groups: Red, Yellow/Orange, White Green, and Blue/purple have nutrients that are not found anywhere else. 1. We will provide coloring sheets for the younger children with several fruits and vegetables in each color group. We will provide an attractive display of rainbow foods for sampling. 2.
Parents/students will verbalize three healthy items to consume using the food yardarm. Especially whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat or fat-free milk or milk products, and lean meats and other protein sources. Limit the intake of saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, sodium (salt) and limit caloric intake to meet caloric needs (Healthy People, 2012). 2. During this portion of the assignment the parent/student will create a healthy meal with snacks using the food pyramid, giving one or more example why it is a healthy choice or not a healthy choice. 3.
Promote physical activities to prevent childhood obesity and to develop a healthy behavioral plan. 3. New to Healthy People 2020, (2012) are objectives aimed mainly on younger children through: 1. Improving physical activities in childcare settings. 2. Limit the use of computers and television watching among the children. 3. Promote fitness and physical activity programs in school to promote the purpose. 3. The parents and the teachers should be educated about the importance of physical activities to reduce obesity among children. Children should be provided with enough resources for the children to play in school and in the communities.
Make an ambiance where the children can make use of sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, ND parks and improve access to the facilities that support physical activities. 4. Children and their parents will be able to name three unhealthy food items that should be limited or avoided 4. Some foods, more that others, contribute to obesity. Ability to identify those food items allows children and their parents to limit or completely eliminate them. Fast food, sweets, and processed food are the main offenders when it comes to weight gain and obesity and must be either limited or avoided.
According to the Food Guide Pyramid fats, oils, and sweets should be used sparingly. 4. All individuals will be able to identify foods to limit on the Food Guide Pyramid. Children and their parents will be given pictures with descriptions of foods that should be limited or avoided. (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012) We have attempted to be creative in planning our teaching presentation. In order to ease learning and allow interaction among the attendees, parents and students will be given the opportunity to discuss differences between healthy and unhealthy food choices.
In the first session, the younger kids and the older kids will be separated into roofs. The younger students (third grade and below) will be shown videos of what happens when unhealthy food choices are made and will discuss the food pyramid. The older kids (fourth and fifth grade) will be randomly be put into six teams, and each team will be given a food choice; the teams will be asked to debate stating the the older students will have an opportunity to debate on their individual stance on which food group is the healthiest.
In the next session, all the students will be put into different groups with at least one person from each grade level in each group. Using buzzers, the students will answer questions about the need for a healthy diet and exercise. Prizes will be awarded for the teams that come in first, second and third place. All these strategies share the goal of arousing interest and gaining knowledge within a compelling atmosphere. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching, we will ask students to complete a quiz that will cover the content in each of the four objectives.
This will tell us what percentage of students gained the knowledge we identified in our objectives and allow us to make changes to increase our effectiveness. To evaluate the process, we will ask the students and the parents to return lesson and teacher evaluation forms at the end of the lesson. The evaluation form will be easy to complete and will focus on how useful, how easy, and how effective the new material and its delivery were. Evaluation forms should be available in Spanish as well. The challenges nurses face when attempting to integrate health teaching into schools are commonly known as barriers to learning.
These factors could impede our goal, which is promoting understanding and increasing knowledge about healthy lives. We have tried to anticipate barriers to learning and develop strategies for overcoming any barriers we may meet. A person’s culture or language may hinder proper understanding of what the nurse tries to teach through the lessons (King, n. D. ). San Diego has a very large Latino population, so our teaching materials will be in both English and Spanish. We will make every effort to have a presenter who is bilingual as well. We will assess whether or not some kids or parents need to have a more individualized approach (King, n. D. . Respect of other languages and cultural competency is critical for the nurse to have n order to provide culturally sensitive teaching plans (King, n. D. ). Age can also be a barrier to learning (Lauren 2012). For young kids who are in Kindergarten, this may be an issue. Pictures and videos will be incorporated in the teaching plan of this age group; also, we will keep our vocabulary simple to facilitate understanding (Lauren, 2012). In addition, lack of participation and compliance can also pose a barrier to positive results. We think attendance can be improved by adding promotional incentives for participation in the teaching lessons.
We will avoid participation by Orca; instead we will encourage attendance and reassure our audience that attending will be worthwhile. New information must be presented to this age group in an easy, fun, and friendly way that will be understandable to both kids and adults. To engage the audience, we will stress the importance of our topic and how it relates to their lives. Pictures and easy to understand statistics can engage the audience. We will end our presentation on a positive and encouraging note, emphasizing the idea that anyone can make positive changes and that each small change makes a big difference.
In conclusion, we believe our approach and our teaching materials will be effective in promoting healthier nutrition and healthier goal body weight for elementary school children in San Diego. We hope to bring something of value to this population, and to add to their knowledge about nutrition and healthy body weight. In this way we will contribute to national and global efforts in this direction. We The Alma Tat’s Health for All Global Initiative. References California Center for Public Health Advocacy (2009). Overweight and obesity among children by California cities. San Diego fact sheet.