Tag Archives: parenting

Childhood Obesity

Posted on August 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

As childhood obesity becomes more common, some experts are asking whether severely overweight children should be removed from their parents. Social workers, family lawyers and health workers tell reporter Helen Grady about cases where obesity has been a significant factor prompting local authorities to step in and take children into care.
In this 30 minute long audio podcast, Helen Grady asks what the state can do to stop obese children becoming super-size adults and what’s stopping social workers from taking more of these children into care.
This podcast is an episode of Radio 4’s The Report documentary series which was broadcast by the BBC on 16 Aug 2012. The podcast is well-suited for listening to on an iPod or mobile phone.

Podcast link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r4report. The podcast can be downloaded and kept as a 13Mb mp3, and the BBC say it will be available indefinitely. BBC podcasts can be shared within the classroom or lecture theatre for educational purposes. © All rights reserved by the BBC.

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Pre-Birth to Three

Posted on May 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

scot PBto3The rights of the child, relationships, responsive care and respect are the four key principles which form the basis of this interactive online national guidance and CPD (Continuing Professional Development) resource.
It’s target audience is adults working with and for babies and young children;  an equivalent hard copy pack including a DVD, a CD and a poster, was issued to all early years establishments in Scotland. The interactive online version combines all of the materials contained in the pack.
This comprehensive collection comprises over 5 hours of video footage, pdf documents, references and further reading. To guide learners, each of the nine elements of the guidance has Reflection and Action pointers, a case study and further signposts to research to support Continuing Professional Development.
Link:  http://bit.ly/16pD2oh

The collection does not have a beginning – middle – end structure; the components are free-standing, making it user-friendly for trainers. However this does mean that an individual e-learner may find the lack of structure an initial hurdle.  Individual e-learners may also find it a bit less interactive than they are used to, and in my opinion the collection would be improved by including some online quizzes or exercises.
Education Scotland have a strong presence on iTunes U, where the separate videos from this collection can be downloaded in mp4 format for offline use. They are available in both high-quality format for trainers/group use, and iPod quality for individual use.

The Open Government Licence allows trainers to download these materials and adapt them for different contexts – a valuable option, as while the policy documents are mostly specific to Scotland, the principles, theory and research apply across the UK.
My favourite feature of the package is that it is designed to be shared with parents and carers (including a tailored pdf leaflet & poster) which will help early years workers wishing to involve parents and carers in developing services collaboratively.
Pre-Birth to Three is © Crown copyright 2012. It may re-used free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

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Poverty, parenting and social exclusion

Posted on September 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

This is one of sixteen elearning resources published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

This 2008 package comprises nine interactive modules by James Blewett, Anna Gupta & Jane Tunstill. They look at the key aspects of poverty, parenting and social exclusion with particular reference to children and families. The resources are designed for social work students and practitioners, but will also be valuable to others working with children and families.

Each of the nine modules is about 20-30 minutes long. They include glossaries, references, transcripts, learning records and links to extra resources. Adobe Flash Player is required on your computer.

The incorporation of simulations, quizzes, commentaries, audio and video clips makes these interactive modules very attractive, and as a teacher I found the accompanying pdf Educators Guide really useful.

Link: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/elearning/poverty/index.asp

Use of this resource, and import of the resource into learning management systems, for educational purposes is freely permitted. A SCORM version is offered for free download and use in a virtual learning environment (VLE).

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