Teaching Experience: Childhood Obesity Prevention Program Reflection

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on a teaching experience focused on educating parents about childhood obesity. It begins with a summary of the teaching plan, which involved six sessions designed to educate parents on the causes, risk factors, and strategies to combat obesity in children aged 5-19. The epidemiological rationale highlights the prevalence of childhood obesity in the nation, emphasizing the higher rates among lower-income groups. The evaluation of the teaching experience discusses the application of the transtheoretical model, identifying the parents' stage of contemplation and tailoring interventions accordingly. The community response section reveals positive feedback from parents, who appreciated the use of simple language, visual aids, and therapeutic communication. The report also analyzes the strengths of the program, such as the use of audio-visual resources and therapeutic communication, while identifying weaknesses, including the lack of affordable healthy food options and the length of the sessions. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and suggesting areas for future improvement, emphasizing the effectiveness of the teaching methods and the need to address affordability issues and session length.

Running head: REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction:
The following assignment will mainly discuss about different aspects of experiences
developed by professionals while teaching parents after the parents had attended the
childhood obesity prevention-program,
Summary of the teaching plan:
Six sessions of two-hour long education were provided to parents of children 5—19
years of age to help them develop knowledge about causes, risk factors and strategies to
overcome obesity. Audiovisual presentations were provided to the patients along with of
documentaries exhibition and pamphlets distribution. Teachers communicated in details in
simple languages for everyone to understand. The program was successful in elicitations
motivation among parents to manage their children and help them develop appropriate food
habits and exercise regimes.
Epidemiological rationale for the topic:
One of the most concerning situation in the nation is the childhood obesity where
children and adolescents are seen to put on weight above the normal levels. Children who are
aged about 2 to that of 19 are found to be severely affected with 13.9% among 2- to 5-year-
olds, 18.4% among 6- to 11-year-olds, and 20.6% among 12- to 19-year-olds. Obesity among
children was found to be higher among the lowest income group. About 19.9% of the
children in the middle-income group were affected. About 10.9% of children are found to be
affected in the highest income groups. About 14.5 % of the children aged 2 to 4 years of age
were found to have obesity in the year 2014.

2
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
Evaluation of the teacher experience:
The teaching experience was positive as all the teachers could complete their sessions
successfully without any disruptions. The parents were successfully engaged in the teaching
program and everyone participated fully in the discussion rounds after completion of the
education sessions. It is important for the educators to always realise the stage of the trans-
theoretical model that the audience is present. Accordingly, they would be developing
interventions to help the clients develop their health behaviours (Prochaska et al., 2015)).
Evaluation of the teaching experience showed that I was able to identify the correct stage
where the parents were present among the five stages of the model. The parents were found
to be in the stage of contemplation. This stage shows that the individuals are aware that their
behaviour is problematic and that they are thinking of changing the behaviours but is not
enough motivated to take the challenges of behaviour changes (Archer et al., 2018)). It had
been found that the parents were already knowing that their child is suffering from health
issues of obesity and that it needs to be handled to help children overcome bullying.
However, they were not fully motivated to make changes. Moreover, they were also found to
be clueless about how to proceed with their children to help them develop healthy lives.
Hence, the teaching plan was found to be successfully. Education sessions should guide
parents with the correct procedures and guidelines and help them develop knowledge that
make them feel confident for making changes in lives of the children and also of their own
health (Panting et al., 2018). This teaching procedure followed this principle and hence, it
was found to be a success.

3
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
Community response to the teaching:
The community of parents were extremely mesmerised after the teaching sessions
were over. They were pleased with the way every little detail of the concept of childhood
obesity was discussed. Their feedback showed that they were happy with the simple language
we have used in place of difficult healthcare terms that were difficult for them to apprehend.
They wrote in the response that the healthcare professionals, who had attended their children
before, discussed the concept with them in very difficult ways. Therefore, they could not
understand things properly. However, the simple words and the diagrammatic representations
in the PowerPoint presentation and the pamphlets shown by us, made them understand the
disorder in details. They were particularly happy with the pamphlets as they stated that they
could use it in their homes as a ready guide if they have any queries or if they forget any
specific information discussed in the session. They were found to be quite influenced with the
documentaries, which showed how parents could encourage their children with good habits.
It also showed the specific health behaviours that they should either exhibit or avoid in front
of their children to help them develop good habits. Studies are of the opinion that audio
visual resources tend to hold the interest of the audience's and help them retain the
information (discussed in education sessions) for longer time (Mohsen, 2016)). Moreover, it
is also found that in order to develop health literacy for people, it is important for
professionals to speak in nonprofessional language without the use of difficult terms and
technical jargons. This helps people with low educational background to grasp the concept
and at the same time develop knowledge on the topics (Riely et al., 2016)). This is found to
be helpful by making them develop proper knowledge about the healthcare behaviours that
they need to change to achieve well-being (Ritzhaupt et al., 2015). Another very important
aspect was the therapeutic communication style established for the parents. The parents
communicated with the educators with full transparency and were seen to rely on them

4
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
entirely. Studies are of the opinion that empathetic and compassionate approach of the
healthcare professionals make the patients believe that the professionals genuinely care for
their health concerns (Arnold et al., 2019). This helps to develop trust on the professionals
and based on this, an emotional connection is established with the professionals. The
development of trust and therapeutic relationship helps patients to reveal vital information
important for healthcare planning which helps in better health outcomes (Riley et al., 2015).
Similarly, it has been found that as the teachers were successful in developing therapeutic
relationships with the parents by showing empathy and compassion about their children
suffering from obesity, the parents started relying on professionals and therefore, their
adherence with the health promotion program enhanced. This would result in better health
outcomes on their children.
Areas of strength and areas of improvement:
The strength of the health education program was that it utilised audio-visual
healthcare resources like PowerPoint presentation, documentaries and similar others. Studies
are of the opinion that audio-visual presentation is one of the best methods for engaging
learners as it grabs the attention of the learners making them develop interest in the topic ().
Another study had talked about the aspect of clarity associated with audiovisual aids which
helps on better retaining of information in the brain for a longer period of time than vocal
lectures alone (Sridharan et al., 2016). It has been also found that audio as well as visual cues
when combined help in increasing message retention. One of the studies showed that only
10% of the information was retained when presentation was given orally but it resulted in
35% of information being retained when it was presented only visually (Silverman et al.,
2016). However, when audio and visual tools were both combined, it resulted in 65% of the
information being retained. Hence, this was one of the strength of the health education
session that was designed (Lewis et al., 2017). One other strength of the program was that it

5
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
became successful in motivating the parents because of the therapeutic communication skill
used by the professionals. Therapeutic communication showing empathy and compassion
helped in developing a strong bond with the parents and they were found to be motivated to
adopt the guidelines that were discussed for healthy behaviours for their children. Studies
opine that therapeutic relationship helps the patients in developing self-coping and self-
managing skills that develop their confidences in taking care of their own health (Snaman et
al., 2016). This increases their compliance with treatment (). Similarly, the health educators
of the program were efficient communicators who became successful in motivating parents in
ways by which they were ready to adopt ne lifestyle choices and health behaviours that would
protect their children from obesity. The only weakness of the program was that the program
did not involve easy by which low income families can afford nutritious organic foods which
are quite expensive in comparison to that of the fast foods or takeaway foods that are calorie
dense and cheap. Healthcare professionals need to advocate about the issue of affordability of
nutritious cheap food to the concerned department of the government so that they can take
appropriate steps for mitigating the issue successfully. Another weakness was that the
teaching sessions were found to be quite lengthy by the children who attended with their
mothers. This made them fidgety and that they were losing focus from the discussion due to
loss of concentration and information overload. This made the parents restless while they
tried to manage their children. This distracted the entire class affecting the smooth flow of the
education.
Conclusion:
From this assignment, it was found that audio-visual education system attracted more
learners making them feel interested in the education session. Therapeutic communication
helped in relationship development between parents and professionals. Simple language was
used in education session, which satisfied the parents making them understand each aspect of

6
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
the disorder in details. The only weakness was that the program did not include any plans for
mitigating the affordability issues of healthy foods so that they can purchase them. The long
sessions were also another weakness that made some children restless affecting the
concentration of the education sessions.

7
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
References:
Archer, S., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., & Blejwas, E. (2018). Beyond the Manuscript:
Developing a Productive Workgroup Within a Community Coalition: Transtheoretical
Model Processes, Stages of Change, and Lessons Learned. Progress in community
health partnerships: research, education, and action, 12(1), 73-79.
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional Communication Skills
for Nurses. Saunders.
Lewis, P., Gaffney, R. J., & Wilson, N. J. (2017). A narrative review of acute care nurses’
experiences nursing patients with intellectual disability: Underprepared,
communication barriers and ambiguity about the role of caregivers. Journal of
Clinical Nursing, 26(11-12), 1473-1484.
Mohsen, M. A. (2016). The use of help options in multimedia listening environments to aid
language learning: a review. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(6), 1232-
1242.
Panting, H., Swift, C., Goodman, W. and Davis, C., 2018. Examining the utility of the Stages
of Change model for working with offenders with learning disabilities. Journal of
Intellectual Disabilities and Offending Behaviour, 9(2), pp.91-101.
Prochaska, J. O., Redding, C. A., & Evers, K. E. (2015). The transtheoretical model and
stages of change. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice, 125-148.
Riley, H., MacLeod, R. B., & Libera, M. (2016). Low latency audio video: Potentials for
collaborative music making through distance learning. Update: Applications of
Research in Music Education, 34(3), 15-23.
Riley, J. B. (2015). Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.

8
REFLECTION ON THE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT
Ritzhaupt, A. D., Pastore, R., & Davis, R. (2015). Effects of captions and time-compressed
video on learner performance and satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 45,
222-227.
Silverman, J., Kurtz, S., & Draper, J. (2016). Teaching and learning communication skills in
medicine. CRC press.
Snaman, J. M., Torres, C., Duffy, B., Levine, D. R., Gibson, D. V., & Baker, J. N. (2016).
Parental perspectives of communication at the end of life at a pediatric oncology
institution. Journal of palliative medicine, 19(3), 326-332.
Sridharan, K., & Sivaramakrishnan, G. (2016). Therapeutic clowns in pediatrics: a systematic
review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. European journal of
pediatrics, 175(10), 1353-1360.