As an Oral Health Promoter , I have the pleasure of meeting and working with groups of people from all walks of life when delivering my oral health talks . One such group is a charity called Action for Kids, where I am also a volunteer. Action for Kids is a charity that supports young people with disabilities . The Charity was formed in 1992 and provides public benefit in a variety of ways including:

Promotion of equality and diversity: – by promoting opportunities for young people with disabilities to work and volunteer in the wider community – by providing opportunities for young people with     disabilities to engage in sporting, artistic and social activities

Relief of those in need by reason of ill-health and/or disability: – by providing specialist mobility equipment, through loan or grant, to young people with disabilities.

Advancement of education: – by providing young people with disabilities with accredited courses in work and life skills.

Action for Kids as part of their ongoing support to their young students , run regular life skill work shops. This is where people such as myself are invited to talk about a variety of topics that will benefit their young students. As my background is in oral health promotion and dental nursing , I was invited to run a workshop focusing on ” Oral health care and sugar”

When planning my workshop, I have to take into account the best way to get my message across , so I had a chat with Fareeda and Hannah to learn about which kind of learning style the students would respond to best. As oral health care is a practical subject, I knew having practical demonstrations in my work shop was key. I learnt from both Hannah and Fareeda that visual learning is very important for the students.

So I planned my workshop to be both visual and practical.. My oral health care and sugar workshop took place this January as part of the ” New Year, New Me” project running at Action For Kids. My resources consisted of a Power point presentation, mouth model , tooth brush, pictures and samples . Power point presentations are great to use as a visual support guide for the students and myself during the workshop. My mouth model , she is called Mandy , named after my Jack Russell was warmly welcomed by the students.

A mouth model is a fantastic demonstration tool , as the educator I can show what is the correct way to brush and then the student can demonstrate back to me their brushing technique . Message delivery is very important to ensure your audience get the best from you. Points to consider are pitch, volume and tone of voice. Body language is to be considered for example deciding whether appropriate to stand or not to stand . I ensure I use language appropriate to the audience’s understanding and take into account this understanding when deciding how much dental/medical jargon I should use during the lesson/workshop. When planning my workshop for Action for Kids, I need to take into account the size of the audience as well as the students learning/physical disabilities to ensure i can deliver the lesson/workshop in an appropriate way to ensure the learning outcomes are met and ensure there are feedback opportunities .

On the day of the workshop, before I began , I needed to ensure the students are able to see me, hear me and are comfortable. So with the help of the tutors and volunteer,Catalina, we arranged the students in front of me in a semi circle. Thus ensuring two of the students who had partial sight , were seated in the front . As my work shop was running approximately for one hour and thirty minutes, a fifteen minute break was essential for the students. A question and answer session is a good way to establish what the students knew already and what the students were unsure of. Some of the most interesting questions I received were from one of the tutors , thank you Vanessa , you definitely kept me on my toes !!!

After delivering the workshop, evaluation is important, as this is one way of identifying what the students thought about the workshop, what I could improve upon and what the students would like from future workshops.

Some of the feedback I received was “ Jolene says that there was some really good information about oral health care i.e.. Visit to the dentist, that she didn’t know before.“ Luke’s group attended – he said that they discussed the session a week later and they remembered you. Again, if you bring in some practical exercise then they will remember it. So with this in mind I plan to make my next workshop, in March, more interactive , with practical experiments such as the ” Fluoride Test” and the ”Coke Cola Test ” I will definitely will be bringing Mandy the Mouth Model back to show of her teeth !!