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  • Title: From child to child: children as communicators.
    Author: Phinney R, Evans J.
    Journal: Dev Commun Rep; 1993; (78):7-9. PubMed ID: 12317896.
    Abstract:
    Older children commonly care for their younger siblings while parents work to provide for the household. Through play, dance, and talk, children tend to interact with each other more intensely than do adults. In so doing, messages and awareness are exchanged more effectively. Child-to-Child is an active, child-centered learning approach which aims to capitalize on this phenomenon by training older siblings to be effective communicators. This approach has been formally practiced in over 70 countries since 1979. Child-to-Child encourages children to learn the meaning and importance of health messages on their own. Children will then be most likely to retain and communicate information throughout the family, to neighbors, and to the general community. No blueprint exists, however, on which program planners may base the design of new programs. Programs should instead be adapted by those living within the community and culture to fit local needs and circumstances. Nonetheless, the Aga Khan Foundation supported the study of 7 highly different Child-to-Child projects over 3 years in India to obtain some sense of which program elements are successful and potentially useful in other settings. The study revealed that all of the programs helped increase the health knowledge of children and teachers. Little information was obtained on the extent to which information was diffused by children within the community. Overall, the study produced the following results: planners should consider using Child-to-Child projects in schools; teacher training should be made a priority; administrative support should be provided; entire staffs should be made to feel involved in the decision making process; obstacles to changing teaching methods should not be underestimated; teaching materials should be locally made; projects should be integrated into official curricula; program topics should be relevant to local realities; respected authorities should be called upon to reinforce the validity of health messages; and incentives should be provided to teachers who use the approach.
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