Risk & Resilience vs. Positive Youth Development

In order to demonstrate how the ideologies of "Risk & Resiliency" and "Positive Youth Development" come into play for Child Life Therapy, I created a chart of different techniques and methods used by a Child Life Specialist and which ideology it fits into.

Technique/method/skills	Ideology?	Why?	Who is the Focus?
Coping with illnesses   - Explaining the illness, procedures, and addressing future concerns for the patient - Using medical play therapy to explain what is happening to patient and the procedures - Use of dolls - Use of medical equipment	Both	From my experience learning to cope with a serious long term illness takes long term methods and therapy.  For the child they may need to just talk about what their illness means and learning about their condition through medical play therapy.  While the parents may need to also talk about the diagnosis, they may also need resources and information from the medical staff at the hospitals.  Thus, like positive youth development, coping with an illness is a creating a positive path for a patient's future.  Positive Youth Development puts the patient first in order to help them and their families cope with the diagnosis. On the other hand, risk and resiliency helps to prevent further anxieties by Child Life Specialists educating patients and families about the illness and providing resources for all aspects of their lives.	Both Child and Illness focused:  They are focused on the illness as they explain and help the child and families understand what is going on.  However they are also child focused as they are explaining the illness in a way that children can understand.
Pain & Anxiety Management   - Drawing how they are feeling - Using picture scales - Using distractions – ipads - Talking to child and families about what is happening to them	Risk & Resiliency	When a patient is in pain or has anxiety about the hospital or a procedure, this need to be dealt with immediately.  What can child life specialists do to aide the situation in the moment - that is the important question.	Illness Focused – The main focus of pain management is for the doctors and nurses to understand how much pain the child is in because of their diagnosis.    However I feel like anxiety management is more child focused because it is working on how the child is feeling mentally and emotionally not just physically.  Anxiety is a long-term management thus each child is different and the implementation is tailored to each child individually.
Identity Development   - Talking to child and families about their future living with the illness or diagnosis - Providing resources - Helping to provide the tools and equipment within the home setting - Helping to educate friends and community on the child’s illness or diagnosis - Providing resources to help aid in child’s identity as they grow up with their diagnosis	Positive Youth Development	Positive Youth Development would state that a patient comes first.  As an example, rather than saying a cancer patient, which focuses on the cancer instead they would say a patient with cancer which now focuses on the patient.  A child life specialist knows, understands, and implements a healthy identity for patients and families as they navigate through an illness and diagnosis.	Child Focused.  Identity Development is completely focused on the child and how they are growing and adjusting in their life with this illness and diagnosis.
Support -	Both	Positive Youth Development fits perfectly with supporting the child and families within the hospital setting.  It is a main job of a child life specialist to be positive and upbeat especially while working in hospitals.  Yes it is difficult for the children and families within the hospital but Positive Youth Development would attempt to make the best of those difficult situations.   The risk and resiliency ideology would talk about how it support the child and family by educating the families on what is happening in the moment and how to best advocate and accommodate the child in the future.	Child & Family Focused.  Support is a huge job for Child Life Specialists.    Sometimes support is what Shayla describes as just being there for the family and silbling – a simple hug during a tough time.  Or support can be talking to the patient and letting them know you are there for them.

 

Curriculum Ideologies

Within the world of education there can be four ideologies categorized.  Schiro (2013) explains the importance of:

1. The Scholar Academic Ideology - this ideology within education is very specific to the world of academia.  Teachers and professors teach the subjects that they know - their specific disciplines.  This can be translated to Child Life Specialists in the way that within a hospital it is the doctors and nurses that are the trained staff that examine the child through the lenses of their specific medical backgrounds.  A brain surgeon would not be able to give input on a child with a heart problem.  Although hospitals have teams that work together, the specialists talk about just that, their areas of expertise.  

 2.  The Social Efficiency Ideology - this ideology talks about how to teach children within schools to be positive members of society.  Within the classroom teachers educate children how to contribute and survive in society; they teach children how to have a productive life.  Unlike the scholar academic ideology which aligns with doctors within the hospitals, this ideology connects with social workers and psychologists.  It is the job of social workers to help prepare a sick child and family for the world outside of a hospital.  

3.  The Learning Centered Ideology - this ideology is the one that aligns with the work of child life specialists the best.  The ideology centers around the needs and concerns of the child mentally rather than within the society.  Within education a teacher works on the growth of a child as individuals, focusing on their own unique attributes.  Child Life Specialists are the ones within the medical world that focus on a youth patient's emotional/mental needs and concerns, while working to help them and the families during their hospitalization.

4.  The Social Reconstruction Ideology - this final ideology that Schiro writes about focuses on social justice within the educational realm.  The purpose of this ideology within education is to help address the injustices and create a more just society for all people.  Within the healthcare world it is a hot topic right now that health care and health insurance is not equal for everyone.  Some children and families just do not have the same support because of a lack of health insurance, thus people are trying to bring universal healthcare into fruition.  

Why is this important?

So what?  Who cares?  Well, Schiro's article is mainly focused on the world of education.  However, as stated above, it can be applied to a multitude of different occupations.  The problem with these ideologies is that they are more or less competing in their views of education.  Overtime it is apparent that within education a teacher usually only fits into one of these ideologies.  Usually it is how they themselves are taught.  This is one reason why there has been little to no improvement within education, because we cannot find a compromise between the four ideologies.  There are too many competing beliefs to properly educate all children within a school.  Children's hospitals have the same problem in the fact that there are too many competing aspects to help treat sick children.  Within a hospital team that meet to discuss the ill child, the staff need to support each other rather than individually talking about their specific expertise.  

References:

Schiro, M. (2013). Introduction to the curriculum ideologies. M. Schiro Curriculum Theory: Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns, 1-13.

What is an ideology?

This is a very good question!  What the heck is an ideology and why is it so important?

According to the chapter Introduction to the Curriculum Ideologies, "an ideology is a collection of ideas, a comprehensive vision, a way of looking at things, or a worldview that embodies the way a person or a group of people believe the world should organized and function.  It is a certain ethical set of ideals, principals, doctorines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work, and offer some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order." (Schiro, M. 2013)

We all have ideologies within our lives, whether we recognize it or not.  It is how we apply these ideologies to our everyday life that makes us all different.  The following video not only defines ideologies but also gives examples of their applications.

So why are ideologies so important to youth development and child life?  A ideology is what people believe and impacts their way of life and way of thinking for years to come.  If a child is taught to have negative ideologies about their experiences, we can only assume their they will have negative thoughts about their world and the world around them.  Thus it is the role of youth workers and child life specialists that we fill children and families with positive thinking and a constructive way to let out their emotions.  

References:

Schiro, M. (2013). Introduction to the curriculum ideologies. M. Schiro Curriculum Theory: Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns, 1-13.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7yG-Onxqto

Ideologies - Positive Youth Development

It has been proven that Positive Youth Development is a main ideology for Youth Development (Cite), but can we say the same for Child Life Therapy?  The orientation of positive youth development states, "a focus on fostering strengths and positive growth (also helps prevent negative outcomes)."  A Positive Youth Development approach focuses on the youth's positive traits and builds upon them to help the lives of both of the youth and their families.  

Although this video is centered towards Big Brothers, Big Sisters - it is a great resource for any youth workers learning about Positive Youth Development.  The speaker states that "positive youth development is saying we need to be sure that we build positive influences, positive assets, and a really strong foundational structure for our youth and their life."

Why is it important?

It was once said to me that you need to put the child and/or patient first.  Instead of saying they are a cancer patient, which puts the focus and emphasis on the cancer, a more positive way would be saying, the patient with cancer.  This simple flip within the sentence gives a positive statement that focuses on the child or patient whom is receiving care.  This example can be applied to many different scenarios within youth work.  Drug dependency, alcohol abuse, learning disabilities, sexual orientation, the possibilities for positivity are endless.

Nevertheless, this ideology doesn't stop with just reframing how people talk about their situation, but it also helps them reframe how they think about it as well.  The key to positive youth development is to reframe their situation into something positive!  It takes a special kind of person to give troubled youth a clear path through their struggles and even more amazing, a positive path for their future.

How does this relate to Child Life?

To reiterate what has been said above, Positive Youth Development insures the well-being and future of the child is the focus of the conversation rather than their illness.  Instead of a troubled youth, it is a youth that is ill or hospitalized with something outside of their control.  And yet, it is the job of child life specialist to work with children and families within the hospital to help them not only stay positive now, but create a positive plan for when they are exited from the hospital.  This can be as simple of distracting them from the pain with a positive activity to using play to help the child explain what they are feeling.  

Ideologies - Risk & Resiliency

An important ideology with the realm of Youth Development is Risk, Resiliency, and Prevention.  As explained to me the belief behind the ideology is "Teens' brains are not fully developed, and so teens do not always make the 'best' decisions.  Children and teens need specific coaching in how to make good choices for themselves.  Urban youth lack 'cultural capital'". (Citation) 

What does this all mean?

This video gives a very in depth view of Risk, Resiliency, and Prevention for Children for many different factors. These include COVID, substance abuse, and suicide.  

Why is this important?  

Dr. Dawn Elise Snipes explains that people "need to remember the impact we have on our family and the impact they have on us.  So when our children are sick for example, you know that is really stressful and effects us as well". (Citation) We have heard this in the literature and from Dr. Bowen - when one member of the family is sick, the entire family is ill - a child's illness affects everyone.  (Citation)

So what does this have to do with Child Life?

For child life specialists, it may not affect them at all.  Families may have the means to take on a family illness without it affecting siblings or other members of the family.  Wealthy families are able to have a babysitter at home taking care of other children while the parents are at a hospital with a sick child, they may be able to get time out of work, and have the resources available to help the child with any learning of physical difficulties they may have after a diagnosis.  However, this is not the case for all families with children in the hospital.  Shayla gave a very different view on Child Life during her interview.  Sometimes a child life specialist has the "simple" job of making sure the families of patients have what they need in the moment.  Whether it is a mom who needs a warm blanket or a sibling who needs something to eat while waiting in the emergency room with their families because they had no one else to watch them.  Shayla's work in an urban part of the country gives a very true to life, and unexpectedly opposing, view than what I had always associated with Child Life.  

Sometimes while working with youth and families as a child life specialists it is also about helping to prevent depression and anxieties in the hospital by working with the families to educate, understand, and by providing resources.