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Developmentally‐based AIDS/HIV Education
Author(s) -
Walsh Mary E.,
Bibace Roger
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1990.tb05928.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , psychology , focus group , developmentally appropriate practice , health education , developmental psychology , medicine , family medicine , pedagogy , public health , early childhood education , nursing , sociology , anthropology
A growing number of health and education professionals argue that AIDS/HIV education curricula should be developmentally‐based. They suggest the principles of developmental psychology be used to design curricula based on the sequentially ordered ways children of different ages understand AIDS. Relying on findings of research on development of children's conceptions of illness, a specific developmentally‐based approach to educating school‐age children about AIDS/HIV is presented in this paper. For each of three major age groups, the paper describes general characteristics for children's thought processes, ways in which children assimilate information about various aspects of AIDS, and implications for educating children about causes, prevention, and fear of AIDS. The focus of AIDS/HIV education can move from reducing fear in the younger group, to identifying and differentiating causes and noncauses of AIDS in the intermediate groups, to articulating strategies for AIDS prevention in the older group.