Tinkering With Testing:Understanding How Museum Program Design Advances Engineering Learning Opportunities for Children

Using a design-based research approach, we studied ways to advance opportunities for children and families to engage in engineering design practices in an informal educational setting. 213 families with 5–11-year-old children were observed as they visited a tinkering exhibit at a children’s museum during one of three iterations of a program posing an engineering design challenge. Children’s narrative reflections about their experience were recorded immediately after tinkering. Across iterations of the program, changes to the exhibit design and facilitation provided by museum staff corresponded to increased families’ engagement in key engineering practices. In the latter two cycles of the program, families engaged in the most testing, and in turn, redesigning. Further, in the latter cycles, the more children engaged in testing and retesting during tinkering, the more their narratives contained engineering-related content. The results advance understanding and the evidence base for educational practices that can promote engineering learning opportunities for children

The Cellie Coping Kit for Kids with Craniofacial Conditions: Developing a Culturally Sensitive Psychosocial Support Tool and Coping Resource for Families with School Age Children with Craniofacial Conditions from Diverse Backgrounds

The current project aimed to develop and pilot test a psychosocial support tool and coping resource: the Cellie Coping Kit for Craniofacial Conditions (Cellie Kit). We adapted a cognitive behavioral theory-based tool that promotes resilience and coping, the Cellie Coping Kit, to be appropriate for families of children with craniofacial conditions. Adaptation was guided by an integration of the Cellie Kit adaptation process with heuristic and ecological validity frameworks to increase cultural sensitivity for Hispanic/Latinx families. Kit adaptation and current pilot testing are part of a larger project that includes kit translation, production, and pilot testing of a bilingual Spanish-English Cellie Kit, in addition to the English Cellie Kit development and pilot testing focused on within the current study. Presently, six English speaking families were enrolled and four completed the Cellie Kit Intervention Program, pre- and post-measures, and semi-structured satisfaction interviews and questionnaires at the end of their participation. A mixed-methods approach including descriptive statistics and codebook thematic analysis, were utilized. Study feasibility and acceptability aims were explored through examining researcher fidelity forms, and quantitative and qualitative review of verbal and written participant reports. We found evidence for the feasibility of the coping intervention based on intervention implementation metrics, and both feasibility and acceptability based on participant-reports. Findings will inform future modifications to enhance kit materials and intervention program design as well as guide future evaluation, and potential for integration into routine clinical care

Family centred approach for HIV services: Pilot study in South Africa

In 2003, UNICEF estimated that nearly 250,000 children were infected with HIV in South Africa. While scale-up of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs has improved testing and care for perinatally infected infants, uptake of these services remains low in much of sub-Saharan Africa and few HIV infected children are diagnosed and receive services through PMTCT programs. With support from USAID/PEPFAR, the Horizons Program adapted a family-centered model for children and families in need of broader-reaching HIV diagnostic services in South Africa. The Family Centered Approach (FCA) pilot intervention was designed to expand access to HIV testing for family members with children ages 0–14 years in their care. This approach gives health-care providers a method for encouraging HIV-positive individuals to refer family members for HIV testing, with the aim of identifying HIV-positive children ages 0–14 years who may have been missed through PMTCT early infant diagnosis programs. This research summary describes the FCA pilot intervention

Homeschooling in Alaska: parent perceptions and homeschool regulations

Thesis (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Homeschooling is a growing trend in the United States and Canada. States vary as to what regulations are required to homeschool a child. Current studies from the United States and Canada focus on the academic achievement of students who are homeschooled, the homeschooling styles that were used, along with education levels and income levels of those who teach at home. The studies only include students who are known to be homeschooled and do not account for the ones that are not required to participate in standardized testing. Research was conducted, first using online surveys completed by families that homeschool in Alaska, then with interviews that had more open-ended questions to allow for more detailed input. In Alaska, parents can choose to homeschool through a correspondence program or homeschool independently without having to notify the state. This research revolved around the following three questions: What does homeschooling look like for families in Alaska? What are parents' perceptions on homeschool regulations in Alaska? Why do parents choose to homeschool with a correspondence program that has more regulations than if they homeschool independently? Findings suggest that parents tend to have an eclectic approach in their teaching and student progress is measured by curriculum assessments, observation and discussion, much like is seen in a public school classroom. Parents may not fully understand the difference between homeschool regulations and regulations for correspondence programs in Alaska. Funding seems to be a top reason to enroll in a correspondence program. As the sample for this study was limited, it would be beneficial to have additional research regarding homeschooling in Alaska

The Future of Parenting Programs: II Implementation

This article examines the role that implementation science can play in evidence-based parenting programs. Although parenting programs can support parents in their caregiving roles, adapting and taking an evidence-based approach from one place to another without attending to implementation factors may contribute to poor impact in a new setting. Implementation science enables researchers to move beyond monitoring and evaluation of outcomes of a parenting program to understanding the process of putting the program into practice. Factors such as whether the program meets the needs of families and communities, how to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, what training and supervision are needed for the workforce, and ways that parenting programs can be integrated in existing infrastructure are all critical to successful implementation. Quality improvement can be built into the implementation process through feedback loops that inform rapid changes and testing cycles over time as a program is implemented. If researchers lead initial implementation of parenting programs, they must determine how the program can continue to work when using community workers and local systems rather than researchers. Open access components are especially important for the implementation of parenting programs in low- and middle-income countries to avoid prohibitive costs of proprietary programs and to benefit from flexibility in adapting components to meet the needs of particular local populations. Parenting programs benefit when policy makers, program leaders, and researchers attend not only to the what but also to the how of implementation.Objective.Design.Results.Conclusions

Taking HIV testing to families: designing a family-based intervention to facilitate HIV testing, disclosure and intergenerational communication

Introduction: Facility-based HIV testing does not capture many adults and children who are at risk of HIV in South Africa. This underscores the need to provide targeted, age-appropriate HIV testing for children, adolescents and adults who are not accessing health facilities. While home based counseling and testing has been succesfully delivered in multiple settings, it also often fails to engage adolescents. To date, the full potential for testing entire families and linking them to treatment has not been evaluated. Methods: The steps to expand a successful home-based counseling and testing model to a family-based counseling and testing approach in a high HIV prevalence context in rural South Africa are described. The primary aim of this family-based model is to increase uptake of HIV testing and linkage to care for all family members, through promoting family cohesion and intergenerational communication, increasing HIV disclosure in the family, and improving antiretroviral treatment uptake, adherence and retention. We discuss the three-phased research approach that led to the development of the family-based counseling and testing intervention. Results: The family-based intervention is designed with a maximum of five sessions, depending on the configuration of the family (young, mixed and older families). There is an optional additional session for high-risk or vulnerable family situations. These sessions encourage HIV testing of adults, children and adolescents and disclosure of HIV status. Families with adolescents receive an intensive training session on intergenerational communication, identified as the key causal pathway to improve testing, linkage to care, disclosure and reduced stigma for this group. The rationale for the focus on intergenerational communication is described in relation to our formative work as well as previous literature, and potential challenges with pilot testing the intervention are explored. Conclusion: This paper maps the process for adapting a novel and largely successful home-based counseling and testing intervention for use with families. Expanding the successful home-based counseling and testing model to capture children, adolescents and men could have significant impact if the pilot is successful and scaled-up

State Opportunities for Reconnecting Young Adults to Education, Skills Training and Employment

"An alarmingly large number of young adults have disconnected from traditional education or skills training pathways, often without obtaining a basic high school credential. The research is clear: the longer a person is without a high school credential or without the skill training necessary for a family-sustaining wage, the more likely that individual will remain in poverty and be a significant consumer of public welfare and social services" (p.1). In addressing this problem, the brief describes the issue, which millions of out-of-school young adults face and which can lead to negative consequences for them as well as society at large; explains several federally authorized programs that impact the reconnection of young adults to education and training; outlines possible state tools for reconnecting young adults to education and skills training; and provides recommendations for state-level engagement

The impact of an interventional counselling procedure in families with a BRCA1/2 gene mutation : efficacy and safety

Background: Predictive genetic testing has high impact on cancer prevention for BRCA carriers and passing this information in BRCA families is important. Mostly, this is proband-mediated but this path is defective and denies relatives lifesaving information. Objective: To assess the efficacy/safety of an intervention, in which relatives are actively informed. Design: Sequential prospective study in new BRCA families. The proband informed relatives about predictive testing (phase I). After 6 months, a letter was sent to adult relatives who had not been reached (phase II). Then a phone call was made to obtain a final notion of their wishes. All subjects received psychometric testing (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI), an interview and routine counselling. Results: Twenty families were included. Twenty-four of the relatives could not be reached, 59 were 'decliners', 47 participated by the proband and 42 by the letter. Predictive testing was performed in 98 % of the participants of which 30 were mutation carriers. The intervention is psychologically safe: the 95 % CI for the estimated mean difference in STAI DY1 between phase II/I subjects (mean difference -1.07, 95 % CI -4.4 to 2.35, p = 0.53) shows that the mean STAI DY1 score (measured at first consult) for phase II is no more than 2.35 units higher than for phase I, which is not relevant. Conclusions: A protocol directly informing relatives nearly doubles the number of relatives tested and is psychologically safe. This should lead to a change in counselling guidelines in families with a strong germline predisposition for cancer

Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline

Beyond Zero Tolerance is a comprehensive, cost-effective approach to secondary school drug education and school discipline that is all about helping teenagers by bolstering the student community and educational environment. This innovative model combines honest, reality-based information with interactive learning, compassionate assistance, and restorative practices in lieu of exclusionary punishment