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Challenges and Opportunities for Lay Trainers of a Curriculum for Families of Special Needs Children
Type of Presentation
Concurrent Session (45 minutes)
Session Abstract
The purpose of this presentation is to explain the challenges Lay Trainers (parents of children with special health care needs) needed to overcome when teaching other parents care coordination skills. The presentation will also address the opportunities that came out of this experience and implications for practice.
Target Audience
Adult educators, instructional designers, administrators
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this session participants will be able to
1) Identify the challenges Lay Trainers overcame when teaching other parents care coordination skills;
2) Describe the opportunities that emerged from having Lay Trainers teach other parents care coordination skills;
3) Identify the implications for having lay people teaching a non-formal curriculum in the community.
Session Description
Our partnership of an adult educator, a clinical content expert, and a designer developed a care coordination curriculum. This curriculum is designed to teach families of children with special health care needs the key skills and behaviors required to manage their child’s condition. To disseminate the curriculum to a broad audience of family caregivers, we developed an Instruction Guide for Lay Trainers (parents of children with special health care needs), trained Lay Trainers, and implemented Lay Trainer teaching to families in the community.
Training sessions for families were offered at sites throughout Wisconsin in conjunction with the five state Regional Centers for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. During the implementation of the curriculum through Lay Trainers’ teaching, we evaluated their performance by observing teaching and soliciting family participants’ feedback.
We encountered some challenges during the implementation of the Lay Trainer teaching. We recruited 13 Lay Trainers, but 10 completed the curriculum training phase. Attrition of Lay Trainers was anticipated due to the time required and the family and life commitments of parents of children with special health care needs. Participant attendance to the sessions was an issue, with 0-3 attendees per session. This challenge discouraged Lay Trainers because they wanted to help more families. Some of the sessions had no attendees, which slowed the process of Lay Trainers gaining teaching experience. Logistical coordination of distant sites presented another challenge.
Although the project had challenges, there were also opportunities that emerged from the Lay Trainer experience. When there were no attendees, Lay Trainers taught the content to the partners to practice their skills. Having small groups fostered more individualized learning. Sessions gave a sense of closeness and a feeling of trust when sharing stories. For sessions without attendees, there was an opportunity for brainstorming strategies for reaching out to potential participants. Lay Trainers identified strategies that would allow others to learn about the curriculum such as having a web presence, announcing in a Facebook page, providing sessions for specific groups, and presenting the curriculum to parent-focused conferences.
We will conclude this presentation with lessons learned and implications for the practice of non-formal curriculum delivery by lay trainers.
Efforts are made to try to schedule sessions on the day preferred by the Primary Presenter, though this cannot be guaranteed. Please check your preference.
Wednesday November 6
Primary Presenter
Simone C Conceição, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Work Title
Associate Professor
Additional Presenters: Enters In Order.
Sarah Johaningsmeir, Medical College of Wisconsin
Work Title
Clinical Research Coordinator II
Holly Colby, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin
Work Title
Advanced Practice Nurse