Online Training That Changes Family Caregiver Behavior and Attitudes

The Family Caregiver Course (FCC) is an 18-week Validation training to sensitize family carers to the psycho-social needs of their relatives, integrate new behaviors that build relationships and specific verbal and non-verbal techniques to increase communication. Validation Training Institute partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado in 2019 and 2020 in delivering this course. Due to COVID-19 limitations, the 2020 iteration was completely digital, using principles of online learning. To replace the two-day in-person component of this course, we developed four, 4-hour Zoom sessions that allowed participants to: practice specific Validation techniques, exercise, process and apply what was learned, role play and receive coaching to anchor skills. Important online rules were maintained, such as, offer opportunities for participant engagement every 10 minutes and create a community of inquiry. Pre- and Post-Surveys of the 2019 and 2020 iterations of FCC showed that after taking this course, family carers: reported that they knew what to do when faced with challenging behaviors from their relative; understood that lying or pretending to agree with a disoriented person was not an effective strategy for communication; gained knowledge of the different forms of dementia and that the differences are significant; were clear about the differences between Validation and other methods.

A concert for babies: Attentional, affective, and motor responses in an infant audience

Many of our most powerful musical experiences are shared with others, and researchers have increasingly investigated responses to music in group contexts. Though musical performances for infants are growing in popularity, most research on infants’ responses to live music has focused on solitary caregiver-infant pairs. Here, we report infants’ attentional, affective, and sensorimotor responses to live music as audience members. Two groups of caregiver-infant (6-18 months) pairs (50 total) watched a short musical performance with two song styles – lullaby and playsong. Caregivers were instructed to watch passively or interactively. The playsong captured more attention and, especially in the interactive condition, elicited more smiles. Notably, infant attention synchronized more with their own caregiver than a random caregiver. Infants with enriched musical home environments spent more time moving rhythmically (“dancing”). Overall, infants’ responses to live musical performance in an audience were influenced by song style, caregiver behavior, and their own musical histories.

Serious Game iDO: Towards Better Education in Dementia Care

We describe the iDO serious game developed during implementation of the Innovative Digital Training Opportunities on Dementia for Direct Care Workers (IDO) project. The project targets formal and informal caregivers of persons with dementia in order to improve caregiver knowledge and competences skills with a non-traditional source of training. This paper describes the steps faced to define the iDO caregiver behavior improvement model, design of game mechanics, development of game art and game characters, and implementation of gameplay. Furthermore, it aimed to assess the direct impact of the game on caregivers (n = 48) and seniors with early signs of dementia (n = 14) in Lithuania measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS). The caregivers’ GDS scores showed a decrease in negative answers from 13.4% (pre-game survey) to 5.2% (post-game survey). The seniors’ GDS scores showed a decrease in negative answers from 24.9% (pre-game survey) to 10.9% (post-game survey). The overall DAS scores increased from 6.07 in the pre-game survey to 6.41 in the post-game survey, statistically significant for both caregivers and seniors (p < 0.001), respectively. We conclude that the game aroused positive moods and attitudes for future caregivers of persons with dementia, indicating a more relaxed status and a decreased fear in accomplishing the caring process.

The Social Origins of Human Prosociality

From early in life, children help, comfort, and share with other people. Recent research has deepened scientific understanding of the development of prosociality—efforts to promote the welfare of others. In this article, we discuss two key insights about the emergence and early development of prosocial behavior, focusing on the development of helping. First, children’s motivations and capabilities for helping change in quality as well as quantity over the opening years of life. Specifically, helping begins in participatory activities without prosocial intent in the first year of life, becoming increasingly autonomous and motivated by prosocial intent over the second year. Second, helping emerges through bidirectional social interactions starting at birth: Caregivers and other individuals support the development of helping in a variety of ways, and young children play active roles that often influence caregiver behavior. The question now is not whether but how social interactions contribute to the development of prosocial behavior. Recent methodological and theoretical advances provide exciting avenues for future research on the social and emotional origins of human prosociality.

Pengaruh pendidikan kesehatan dengan media audiovisual dan media booklet terhadap perilaku caregiver dalam mencegah tuberkulosis pada anggota keluarga

Recently, tuberculosis is still a global health problem in the world as well as in Indonesia. Millions of people die and contract tuberculosis every year. Various strategies and efforts are made to reduce the incidence of TB one with health education. Health education for more effective results required an educational media. Audiovisual media and booklets are considered interesting media. This study aims to know the effect of health education with audiovisual and booklet media toward caregiver behavior in preventing tuberculosis in family members. The research used Quasy experiment approach and one group pretest-posttest with control group design. This study was conducted in 2 health centers in Bantul district, with a total sample of 30 respondents The results of this study indicated that in the intervention group there was an increase in TB prevention behavior score of 28.46. This number is more than in the control group which is equal to 9. The comparison test results are obtained p = 0.000. The conclusion of this study was that health education with audiovisual media can improve caregiver behavior in preventing tuberculosis in family members.