Dr Kath Price at Sheffield Children's Hospital got in touch to tell us that along with the funds raised by kidswithtod and further support from the Children's hospital charity she now has sufficient funds to start the next 'KICk-OFF' educational research study in children from 4-11yrs looking at the best ways to teach our children, their families and carers how to manage their diabetes.
This is the letter we received from Dr Price:
To KIDSWITHTOD fundraising.
Thanks to the heroic fundraising efforts of KIDSWITHTOD families and friends and funding from The Children’s Hospital Charity we are now able to take forward a new research project which is focusing on younger children with type 1 diabetes.
We are calling this KICk-OFF Junior as it is a spin off from the KICk-OFF project which developed an education course for 11-16 yr olds with diabetes.
We realise that there is a huge amount to learn when a child develops diabetes. Many children are diagnosed when they are very young and so the initial education is largely focussed on their parents. As they grow up, they need to learn how to manage their diabetes themselves so that when they move into secondary school they can be moderately independent and can hopefully keep good diabetes control.
During the KICk-OFF Junior project we will work with primary school teachers to develop
educational material which is suited to various age groups – from reception class level through to year 6. We will produce lesson plans for diabetes teams to follow and will have games and activities which help children learn more about their diabetes but in a fun way and in a way that is familiar to them from school.
We will then run some of these new sessions in Sheffield. We will be asking families about their experiences and also measuring through questionnaires and by looking at the diabetes control, whether they seem to have been helpful. We will also be working with experts in education who will observe the teaching to see if they can suggest better ways of doing it.
All research takes time and money but we feel this is a fantastic opportunity to help diabetes teams across the UK to teach their children about their diabetes. At the end of the day, the main aim is to help children have good diabetes control and lead full and healthy lives.
Many thanks to TOD for making this happen.
Dr Kath Price.
Sheffield Children Hospital.
To each and everyone of you that got involved Thank you.
Sheffield Children Hospital.
To each and everyone of you that got involved Thank you.
