Objective
Identify ways to collaborate to develop culturally relevant nutrition materials for American Indian children.
Target audience
Schools in many high need communities in South Dakota teach the traditional Lakota language; however there are limited resources available in the language. Tatanka’s Healthy Tales was created for American Indian children to learn basic Lakota language while practicing nutrition and physical activity concepts.
Theory, Prior Research, Rationale
Culturally relevant materials are effective because they use familiar context for lessons including language, experiences, and images. American Indian children do not see themselves in most nutrition education materials.
Description
Through a collaboration of partners, a popular workbook with nutrition activity pages for 2nd and 3rd graders was translated into Lakota. A CD with audio files was created for teachers who were not fluent Lakota speakers, and interactive whiteboard files were designed to help facilitate interactive lessons into elementary classrooms. The original character was replaced with a more culturally appropriate image for Plains American Indian children; Curly, a helpful and engaging buffalo.
Evaluation
Eighteen schools with 50% or more American Indian enrollment assisted in testing the knowledge and behavior change produced after children were exposed to a subset of lessons from the workbook. Surveys were modified from an Iowa Extension tool for 3rd graders and administered pre and post by program staff/teachers.
Conclusions and Implications
Data is being analyzed and results will be available in the spring of 2013. The expectation is that children will be more receptive to trying new foods and report more minutes of physical activity.
Funding
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - Education.
Article info
Publication history
P29
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc.
