"Tiny Start: Child Development Without Secrets" is the latest child of SUM's Centre for Remote Learning Analysing Educational Outcomes, created on the initiative and in close collaboration with two SUM graduates, Monika Pizun and Marianna Strojna. The ladies plan to develop the project during their future doctoral studies.
It will be an interactive educational tool in the form of a website, available to SUM students 24/7, which is intended to systematise and check knowledge on the correct psychophysical development of children aged 0-12 months. The website is intended to be a learning support for physiotherapy, medical, midwifery and nursing students, enabling them to better understand the process of child development.
- We know that no one will understand the needs of students better than other students. That's why, when Monika and Marianna - then still 5th year physiotherapy students - approached us with the idea of creating this type of tool, we knew it was imperative that we helped them find funding and then help them realise this project. We did it! Thanks to the funds granted by the GMC,by the end of December 2024 there will be a dream tool that can be used by students of all SUM faculties." - says Sandra Adamczyk, project coordinator.
The website will contain reliable and verified knowledge, which until now was scattered in many media (internet, textbooks, news from specialisation course materials).
"The information searched by students was not always valuable or true, and lecturers were not always able to use retrieved videos or animations due to licensing or copyright restrictions. Providing a tool with verified, reliable and attractive animations and detailed audio descriptions and messages helps to significantly save time in finding the materials needed for learning and teaching." - notes Sandra Adamczyk, project coordinator.
The tool created at SUM will not only free students from having to 'dig through' piles of books or click through page after page on the web, but will, above all, provide access to reliable and verified information: good quality animations, detailed audio descriptions and tests to consolidate acquired knowledge.
The subject matter covers five main areas: supine development (on the back), pronated development (on the stomach), crawling diagnosis, grip development and selected primary reflexes.
"We hope that the project 'Toddler Start: Child Development Without Secrets' will bring significant benefits in relation to the educational process, through a modern approach to teaching. The asynchronous opportunity to teach and test knowledge significantly increases the amount of time outside the University that students can devote to learning theory, which will allow lecturers to increase the amount of time, in classroom sessions, that they devote to learning practice, which is crucial to the skills of future graduates." - says Przemysław Jędrusik, head of CKZiAEE.
The students' initiative involved not only the CKZiAEE staff, but also SUM lecturers Anna Brzęk, PhD in health sciences, and Agata Dobrowolska, PhD in health sciences, who share their extensive knowledge and experience and ensure that the content of the website is aligned with the curricula.
The project "Tiny start. Child development without secrets. Part 1 Correct child development 0-12 months' is co-financed by the Metropolitan Fund for the Support of Science from 2022 to 2024.
