Curriculum for Grades 4 - 5: Training Manual and PowerPoint CD

Author: Beverly Price, RD, MA, RYT

Our program, Special Me uses age-appropriate prevention principles to teach pre-pubescent children to:

• Understand normal development and weight patterns during puberty
• Gain a historical perspective on current body image attitudes in this country
• Become aware of the dangers involved in dieting
• Think critically about media messages and resist unhealthy cultural pressures regarding weight and dieting
• Develop healthy eating behaviors and active lifestyles
• Respect genetic diversity of body shapes and sizes and understand steps involved in conflict-resolution
• Develop an identity and positive self-esteem based on inner strengths and not on appearance
  

Special Me educates on how appearance changes as healthy bodies progress through puberty--stressing the normal and expected rounding out of bodies, which is often confused with "becoming fat".

Lessons engage children in understanding historical perspectives on the development of unrealistic body images in Western culture, recognizing the role played by heredity in determining body shape, the role of hunger and satiety, and the risks of dieting behaviors.

The curriculum teaches healthy eating, facing the challenges of junk food, and the benefits in choosing and active lifestyle. It promotes fluency in interpreting mass media messages about "ideal beauty" and empowers children to resist feeling deficient in comparison to "ideal" media images.

Self-Study and Evaluation Assessments are found at the back of each manual.  They may be mailed, faxed or preferably e-mailed to Beverly@gettingthatjumpstart.com.