Kids, raccoons and roos : awkward encounters and mixed affects

Kids à descoberta

1.º Congresso Internacional de Educação, Psicologia e Neurociências: Sinapses, Educar no Século XXI. Vila Franca do Campo: 30 de março e 1 de abril.

Performance and ruminal morphologic characteristics of Saanen kids fed ground, pelleted or extruded total ration

The aim of the present study was to determine feed intake and average weight gain and to evaluate the ruminal morphologic characteristics of Saanen kids slaughtered at 30, 45 and 60 days of age, according to a completely randomized design. Thirty-six non-castrated male Saanen kids were fed ground total ration, pelleted total ration, or extruded total ration. Feed intake and refusals were controlled daily and the animals were weighed at birth and then once a week. Newborn kids received a milk replacer and were weaned at 45 days. Immediately after slaughter, the animals were eviscerated, the entire digestive apparatus was removed from the carcass. The reticulo-rumen was separated, emptied, washed and weighed. Samples were collected from the dorsal sac, pillar area and ventral sac of the rumen, fixed for about 24h in Bouin's solution, dehydrated, embedded in Histosec and cut into 5 mu m sections. Results showed that dry matter intake (DMI) at weaning and post-weaning and weight gain were higher (P < 0.05) in animals that received the pelleted total ration. The weight of the reticulo-rumen accompanied body development and was heavier in these animals. Histologically, after weaning ruminal papillae were more developed in animals that received pelleted total ration. Length of papillae increased with increase of age. The ratio of papillary height to papillary width increased with age in the ventral sac and until weaning (P > 0.05). We conclude that the pelleting process of the total ration favored increased intake, with a 46.7% increase in weight gain and increase in rumen weight and papillae length, suggesting that best results are obtained with this processing. In general, no difference was observed between the results obtained with extruded and ground total ration, although animals fed extruded total ration showed an increase in rumen weight and papillae width. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Productive performance and parasitological control of kids supplemented with umbu fruits (Spondias tuberosa Arruda).

Native fruits from Caatinga vegetation can be an important alternative to improve the productive performance of kids in the semi-arid region of Brazil. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of supplementation with Umbuzeiro fruits in natura over the weight gain and anthelmintic control of kids kept in Buffel grass pasture in the semi-arid zone of Pernambuco, Brazil. Twenty-four castrated, crossbreed kids were allocated into three treatments: 1) Control (n = 8) fed exclusively with Buffel grass; 2) Umbu 1x (n = 8) fed with fruits once a week and 3) Umbu 3x (n = 8) fed with fruits for three times a week. The following parameters were evaluated: variation of body weight, faecal egg counts (FEC) and coproculture. Overall, the average consumption of Umbu fruits in natura was 1.48 kg/animal/day, which corresponded to 133.5 g daily dry matter intake (DMI/animal/day). There were no significant difference (P>0.05) for any parameters evaluated. During the experimental period, the overall daily weight gain was variable between 108.75 to 116.70 g/animal/day and the average FEC was 436 eggs. In the present study, the goat kids supplemented with fresh umbu fruits showed a good productive performance, however the supplementation with umbu did not control the infestation of gastrointestinal nematodes in kids.

The use of online counselling within an Australian secondary school setting: a practitioner’s viewpoint

This paper proposes that the provision of online counselling services for young people accessed through their local school website has the potential to assist students with mental health issues as well as increasing their help seeking behaviours. It stems from the work of the authors who trialled an online counselling service within one Australian secondary school. In Australia, online counselling with the adult population is now an accepted part of the provision of mental health services. Online provision of mental health information for young people is also well accepted. However, online counselling for young people is provided by only a few community organisations such as Kids Help Line within Australia. School based counselling services which are integral to most secondary schools in Australia, seem slow to provide this service in spite of initial interest and enthusiasm by individual school counsellors. This discussion is the product of reflection on the potential benefits of this trial with a consideration of relevant research of the issues raised. It highlights the need for further research into the use of computer mediated communication in the provision of counselling within a school setting.

Re-assessing streetkids : a critique of subculture theory

Focusing on the notion of street kids, the paper suggests that youth be viewed in an alternative way to the subculture theory associated with the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham (CCCS). It is argued that not only is subculture theory an unsuitable mechanism for understanding homeless youth but also, and more importantly, is itself fundamentally problematic. It is suggested that the work of Michel Foucault necessitates a reevaluation of the domain assumptions underlying subculture theory and offers in its place a model that relocates street kids, and youth itself, as artifacts of a network of governmental strategies.

When 'listeners can't talk' : comparing active listening in opening sequences of telephone and online counselling

While there is growing use of online counselling, little is known about its interactional organisation and how it compares to telephone counselling. This is despite past research suggesting that both counsellors and clients report the impact of the different modalities on the presentation and management of the counselling interaction. This paper compares the interactional affordances of telephone and online web counselling in opening sequences on Kids Help Line, a 24-hour Australian counselling service for children and young people up to the age of 25. We examine two ways that counsellors show active listening through response tokens and formulations. The analysis describes how counsellors’ use of minimal response tokens facilitate the clients’ problem presentation and are used in the management of turn taking and sequence organisation. For example, counsellors use the response token Mm hm to show that they understand that the client’s unit of talk to is not yet complete, and to affirm or invite the client to continue speaking. Formulations in phone and web counselling are another way that counsellors display active listening to re-present stretches of the clients’ preceding talk. In phone and web counselling, however, the respective modalities can complicate matters of turn transition and sequence organisation. By examining actual phone and online counselling sessions, this paper offers empirical demonstrations of the interactional affordances of phone and online counselling, and shows how the institutional practice of active listening is accomplished across different counselling modalities

"Has Gothic cake and eats it too : dreaming of Amelia" by Jaclyn Moriarty

Dreaming of Amelia (2009) recounts a small group of HSC students’ final year of high school. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel focuses on shifting senses of self, maturity, and agency as the protagonists move from adolescence to adulthood. The central conflict of the novel results from two ‘bad kids from the bad crowd at bad Brookfield High’ (blurb) transferring to wealthy private school, Ashbury; Amelia and Riley are scholarship students who do not fit with Ashbury’s profile of 'normal student' as it is understood by the school’s students or staff, and their presence in the school community forces many people to reassess their understanding of individual value (or, at least, that’s what the novel claims happens). In the shifting of perceptions, allegiances, and relationships, each of the main characters achieves a stronger sense of their identity, and Dreaming of Amelia is thus firmly located within the tradition of Young Adult (YA) literature, with all its stereotypes of adolescence.

Advice-implicative interrogatives : building 'client-centered" support in a children's helpline

Interactional research on advice giving has described advice as normative and asymmetric. In this paper we examine how these dimensions of advice are softened by counselors on a helpline for children and young people through the use of questions. Through what we term ‘‘adviceimplicative interrogatives,’’ counselors ask clients about the relevance or applicability of a possible future course of action. The allusion to this possible action by the counselor identifies it as normatively relevant, and displays the counselor’s epistemic authority in relation to dealing with a client’s problems. However, the interrogative format mitigates the normative and asymmetric dimensions typical of advice sequences by orienting to the client’s epistemic authority in relation to their own lives, and delivering advice in a way that is contingent upon the client’s accounts of their experiences, capacities, and understandings. The demonstration of the use of questions in advice sequences offers an interactional specification of the ‘‘client-centered’’ support that is characteristic of prevailing counseling practice. More specifically, it shows how the values of empowerment and child-centered practice, which underpin services such as Kids Helpline, are embodied in specific interactional devices. Detailed descriptions of this interactional practice offer fresh insights into the use of interrogatives in counseling contexts, and provide practitioners with new ways of thinking about, and discussing, their current practices.

Infant wrapping as an evidence-based strategy to encourage settling and the utilisation of the supine sleep position

Objective: To identify knowledge, attitudes and practices of child health nurses relating to infant wrapping as an effective settling/sleep strategy. Methods: A pre-test/post-test intervention design was used to explore knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to wrapping in a sample of child health nurses (n=182): a) pre-test survey; b) educational intervention incorporating evidence relating to infant wrapping; SIDS&KIDS endorsed infant wrapping pamphlet; Safe Sleeping recommendations. Emphasis was placed on infant wrapping as an effective settling strategy for parents to use as an alternative to prone positioning; c) post-test survey to evaluate intervention effectiveness. Results: Pretest results identified wide variation in nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and practices of infant wrapping as a settling/sleep strategy. The intervention increased awareness of wrapping guidelines and self-reported practices relating to parent advice. Significant positive changes in nurses’ awareness of wrapping guidelines (p<0.001); to wrap in supine position only (p<0.001); and parental advice to use wrapping as an alternative strategy to prone positioning to assist settling/sleep (p<0.01), were achieved post-test. Conclusions: Managing unsettled infants and promoting safe sleeping practices are issues routinely addressed by child health nurses working with parents of young infants. Queensland has a high incidence of prone sleeping. Infant wrapping is an evidence-based strategy to improve settling and promote supine sleep consistent with public health recommendations. Infant wrapping guidelines are now included in Queensland Health’s state policy and Australian SIDSandKids information relating to safe infant sleeping. In communicating complex health messages to parents, health professionals have a key role in reinforcing safe sleeping recommendations and offering safe, effective settling/sleep strategies to address the non-recommended use of prone positioning for unsettled infants.

Script proposals: a device for empowering clients in counselling

Much of the research on the delivery of advice by professionals such as physicians, health workers and counsellors, both on the telephone and in face to face interaction more generally, has focused on the theme of client resistance and the consequent need for professionals to adopt particular formats to assist in the uptake of the advice. In this paper we consider one setting, Kid’s Helpline, the national Australian counselling service for children and young people, where there is an institutional mandate not to give explicit advice in accordance with the values of self-direction and empowerment. The paper examines one practice, the use of script proposals by counsellors, which appears to offer a way of providing support which is consistent with these values. Script proposals entail the counsellors packaging their advice as something that the caller might say – at some future time – to a third party such as a friend, teacher, parent, or partner, and involve the counsellor adopting the speaking position of the caller in what appears as a rehearsal of a forthcoming strip of interaction. Although the core feature of a script proposal is the counsellor’s use of direct reported speech they appear to be delivered, not so much as exact words to be followed, but as the type of conversation that the client needs to have with the 3rd party. Script proposals, in short, provide models of what to say as well as alluding to how these could be emulated by the client. In their design script proposals invariably incorporate one or more of the most common rhetorical formats for maximising the persuasive force of an utterance such as a three part list or a contrastive pair. Script proposals, moreover, stand in a complex relation to the prior talk and one of their functions appears to be to summarise, respecify or expand upon the client’s own ideas or suggestions for problem solving that have emerged in these preceding sequences.

AITPM national newsletter October 2008 president's report

It’s a pleasure for me to be penning my first President’s Message for the AITPM Newsletter. I am eagerly looking forward to serving the Institute and members over the coming couple of years. First though, I’d like to congratulate Andrew Hulse for steering the good ship AITPM over the past two years, bringing so many initiatives to the fore, including the Certified Transport Planner (CTP), stronger ties with other organisations and agencies such as IPENZ and Austroads, mutually beneficial sponsorship arrangements, and sharing his enthusiasm towards the Thunderbirds. Personally and largely thanks to my kids’ domination of the TV I’m a bit keener on the other great British sixties sci-fi classic, Doctor Who. Maybe we can generate a “favourite Doctor” dialogue in the Newsletter.

“Have you talked with a teacher yet?": how helpline counsellors support young callers being bullied at school

When seeking help and support about being bullied, children and young people weigh up the benefits and risks of talking to their friends, parents, teachers and counsellors about their experiences. The focus of this paper are calls to an Australian helpline for children and young people where the strategy of “talking to the teacher” is discussed by callers and counsellors as a possible way of dealing with the caller’s bullying situation at school. Transcribed and analysed data extracts of calls show how the young callers’ bullying experiences are being heard by the counsellor, and also reveals the skill of the counsellors in managing these calls within the philosophy and guidelines of the service.

Extending client-centered support : counselors’ proposals to shift from email to telephone counseling

The availability and use of online counseling approaches has increased rapidly over the last decade. While research has suggested a range of potential affordances and limitations of online counseling modalities, very few studies have offered detailed examinations of how counselors and clients manage asynchronous email counseling exchanges. In this paper we examine email exchanges involving clients and counselors through Kids Helpline, a national Australian counseling service that offers free online, email and telephone counseling for young people up to the age of 25. We employ tools from the traditions of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to analyze the ways in which counselors from Kids Helpline request that their clients call them, and hence change the modality of their counseling relationship, from email to telephone counseling. This paper shows the counselors’ three multi-layered approaches in these emails as they negotiate the potentially delicate task of requesting and persuading a client to change the trajectory of their counseling relationship from text to talk without placing that relationship in jeopardy.