Teaching Plan for Healthy Snacks in Preschool Age: ACCA Day Care in Annandale Virginia - Case Study Example

Teaching Plan for Healthy Snacks in Preschool Age: ACCA Day Care in Annandale Virginia Table of Contents 1. Assessment of needs and rationales 3 A. Group description 3 B. Assessment of readiness 4 C. Community/ nursing diagnosis and interventions 4 2. Teaching plan 5 A. Objectives 5 B. Teaching strategies and methods 5 C. Evaluation 6 3. Delivery 6 4. Evaluation 6 5. Manner of presentation 7 6. Post presentation evaluation 7 7. References 9 Teaching Plan for Healthy Snacks in Preschool Age: ACCA Day Care in Annandale Virginia 1. Assessment of needs and rationales A. Group description The health teaching needs in ACCA Day Care concerns preparation of children during their preschool age for healthy eating. In fact, health teaching assists children by preparing them mentally and physically, through creation of a healthy environment and feeding behaviors. In this case, health needs were identified by the ACCA Child Development Center (CDC), which is a group that focuses on providing daycare services for children belonging to parents, who earn low-income (ACCA, 2012). The group identified the need for creating a healthy environment, whereby they encourage can parents to provide nutritious alternatives for family meals and snacks during their preschool age for their children. Moreover, this involves making parents understand that eating healthy snacks at home is not enough; thus, there is need for them know facts concerning significance of eating healthy snacks in order to develop a healthy behavior among children. The need was identified by ACCA (CDC) because they provide day care and early education for children during their preschool age. ACCA (CDC) recognized that parents have a significant influence on the children’s life and their health. In addition, given that children in ACCA Day Care come from families with low-income, parents are not able to engage in healthy feeding modes; thus, they end up offering unhealthy snacks to their children, which causes problems such as childhood obesity. In fact, significant portion of their income is spent on rent due to shortage of affordable housing in Annandale, Virginia (ACCA, 2012). Therefore, ACCA (CDC) found the need for educating parents on application of a practice, which ensures that children are provided with healthy snacks during their preschool age. B. Assessment of readiness Teaching plan for healthy snacks in preschool age is motivated by appalling reputation of snacks in the society. Currently, in-take of regular meals among numerous families in Annandale, Virginia has been noted to be comprising of snacks, which may result to health problems such as obesity among preschool age children (Robert Wood Johnson foundation, 2011). In this case, this has led to a different perception towards meals and snacks for preschoolers by ACCA (CDC). Given that preschoolers are children, who are smaller compared to teenagers and adults, their stomachs are incapable of holding a lot of food during a meal; thus, they eat more than adult’s do. On the other hand, they are more active; thus, they require more calories. Preschoolers need 1,300 calories daily, and snacks offer twenty to twenty five percent of the total energy needed by these children (Steendahl, 2013). In this case, there is need to identify the snacks that are healthy for children in order to avoid problems caused by excess intake of calories. Nevertheless, there are potential barriers to learning, which involve reduced parents involvement caused by inconveniences associated to their work and tight schedules. C. Community/ nursing diagnosis and interventions According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2012), fundamentals of community and public health concepts can be applied through interventions focused on families, individuals and the entire community. In this case, this refers to concept that facilitates identification of eating modes that should be changed positively and creation of awareness in relation to behaviors that can lead to excess intake of calories. Moreover, nursing diagnosis and intervention can assist in comparing dietary history of nutritional standards, which can facilitate identification of deficiencies and excesses in feeding behaviors. Moreover, this intervention can facilitate development of daily plan, which can be used to identify snacks without excess calories and fat. 2. Teaching plan A. Objectives Teaching for healthy snacks in preschool age is aimed at ensuring that these children are able to balance the types of snacks they consume in order to maintain a healthy body. Moreover, the teaching is also aimed at ensuring that children are consuming moderate quantities and types of snacks (Steendahl, 2013). Therefore, they are also made to understand that consumption of snacks with high fat qualities and sugary substances is harmful to their health. The teaching will also involve parents for them to understand the quantities of food groups that should be consumed by children based on their age (Division of Early Childhood Education, 2010). This teaching will also help parents to develop a healthy eating plan for their children, which will entail selection of five food groups. In addition, the teaching will involve offering recommendations, which are based on directives from USDA food pyramid (Robert Wood Johnson foundation, 2011). B. Teaching strategies and methods According to Steendahl (2013), the process of teaching will commence by setting ground rules, which will ensure there is no stigmatization of children who are over or under weight during their preschool age. The discussions in regarding ways of choosing healthy snacks should be normalized and depersonalized. A teacher should identify ways of dealing with questions during the teaching session; thus, there is need to expect hard questions from these children. Moreover, the teacher should also enable these children to ask question anonymously. Teachers should also make relevant suggestions to parents such as obtaining local health services. On the other hand, the teacher should identify ways of responding and disclosing crisis related to eating disorders among children in preschool age. Teaching sessions for healthy snacks should involve parents in learning activities. In fact, this has a positive influence on the response to health issue such as eating disorders (Birch, Parker & Burns, 2011). C. Evaluation Evaluation is aimed at identifying the extent to which learning objectives for healthy snacks among preschool age children have been achieved. In fact, this involves examination of behaviors among these children in order to determine impact of knowledge acquired through learning. Therefore, evaluation of the teaching process can assist in determining gaps that need to be bridged in order ensure that set objectives have are achieved significantly. 3. Delivery Content presentation during teaching sessions involves an introduction part, which will set pace for establishing good eating habits, whereby the teacher should be a good example to these children. The teacher can eat with these children and serve reasonable portion of snacks. Moreover, facilitating adherence to the plan of eating healthy snacks involves making them understand that they should stop eating when they are full. On the other hand, the impact of learning can be evaluated through feedback from parents concerning their feeding behaviors at home. Therefore, results and the learning process can be summarized to facilitate understanding of ways through which parents can ensure that their children are eating healthy snacks. 4. Evaluation Evaluation of the teaching plan for healthy snacks in preschool age children focuses on determining the extent to which set objectives have been achieved throughout the teaching process. In this case, evaluation will also focus on determining effectiveness of these teaching strategies and methods. Moreover, this evaluation will focus on the entire teaching plan in order to determine whether it is can facilitate achievement of set objectives. 5. Manner of presentation The presentation should be captivating in order to avoid children being distracted during learning sessions because it can lead to undesired outcomes. The presentation should be in a slow pace and ideas should be clear to ensure that all children have understood key concepts. The teacher should form group among these children in order to facilitate their involvement as member of these teams (Steendahl, 2013). On the other hand, the presenter should refrain from using vocabularies that cannot be understood by these children. Therefore, the teacher should use simple words to make them understand relevant ideas. Teachers should act as role models, whereby the children should see as they try healthy snacks; thus, making a substantial reinforcement of the content. The presentation meant for children should be simpler compared to presentation provided to their parents. Nevertheless, the presentation should involve body language, which makes a substantial contribution to the process of learning. In addition, the teacher should be creative in order to make the presentation interesting, and this can facilitate understanding among these children. 6. Post presentation evaluation Evaluation of Part 1: this evaluation focuses on determining whether the presentation had appropriate appearance. Moreover, this would also focus on determining whether the presentation was delivered in a slow pace, while focusing on the clarity of ideas. It should also focus on determining presenter’s ability to involve group member in the learning activities. In addition, evaluation should ensure that children have understood vocabularies used during the presentation. Evaluation of Part 2: the evaluation in this part involves determining whether content derived through this presentation had appropriate reinforcement. This evaluation also will determine whether this presentation focused on target level of group. It will also focus on evaluating use of body language and creativity during the presentation, which can facilitate understanding of basic ideas. In this case, the presentation will focus on ensuring that ideas conveyed to the audience are understandable. Therefore, aspects such as being captive, clarity and audience involvement make the presentation effective in delivery of key ideas to these children. However, if there were a chance for the presentation to be repeated, it would be appropriate for the teacher to provide more chances for parents’ involvement in the learning process. References ACCA. (2012). FY2012 Annual Report. Retrieved from: http://www.accacares.org/documents/ACCA_Annual_Report_FY2012.pdf Birch L, Parker L, & Burns A. (2011). Early childhood obesity prevention policies. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. Division of Early Childhood Education. (2010). Preschool Program Guidance: Planning for Meal and Snack Times in Preschool Programs. NJ Department of Education. Retrieved from: http://www.nj.gov/education/ece/psguide/meal.htm Robert Wood Johnson foundation. (2011). Preventing Obesity among Preschool Children: How Can Child-care Settings Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity? Research Synthesis. Retrieved from: http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/health_food/healthy_eating/teaching_preschoolers_how_to_choose_healthy_food.html Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2012). Public Health Nursing: Population- Centered health care in the Community. St. Lousis: Mosby Steendahl, C. (2013). Teaching Preschoolers How To Choose Healthy Food. Food Editorials.com. Retrieved from: http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/health_food/healthy_eating/teaching_preschoolers_how_to_choose_healthy_food.html Read More