A collaborative work between psychologist and students and a former graduate, Sarah Calleja, from the Swinburne University of Technology developed an app which gives parents an ease of conversing about sex with thier tweens (pre-adolescent stage- aged between 8-12 years old), according to Medical Xpress.
Calleja previously worked with the Swinburne postgraduate students to write a book which helped girls during the junior high to high school transition. Since then, Callega was curious to do something that could help parents and tweens. She left no stone unturned and took help from the Swinburne Design lecturer Nicki Wragg, who assigned a group of Bachelor of Communication Design (Honours) and Bachelor of Digital Media Design (Honours) students as a part of a project.
"Parents complain there is little suitable material to support them in having meaningful conversations about confronting sexual issues with their tweens that enables them to share their personal values and ethics," Calleja said. "I wanted to address this issue by creating a resource that uses the technology tweens are using to inspire conversations with their parents. Having these discussions doesn't give kids permission to have sex, it gives them information to help them choose to behave responsibly."
The app was developed focusing on sensitive areas which are normally not discussed face-to-face between parents and tweens such as, problems in relationships, offensive sexual material easily available on the web or emotional and physical health concerns of tweens.
The students who joined Calleja in her collaborative work included Candice Ayad, Gretchen Dobson, Leonie Beatson from Communication Design and Conlan Normington and Sam Van Ingen from Digital Media Design. Calleja said the application could be a new educational tool parents can use to guide their children.
It can be used in many ways, depending on the topic of discussion. The app consists of quizzes and facts, video narratives and has questions that act as conversation starters. All this is packed in a responsive and engaging design.
"Some parents might find the content or the thought of talking about such things with a tween worrying, but research has shown that tweens prefer parents to be the 'go-to person' to discuss sexual issues," Calleja said,
The app can also help parents discuss complex issues in a safe manner without it becoming too awkward. Parents can choose from the topics that interest tweens, take quizzes on them and get questions that could help them start conversations on such topics with their children.
