New Insights

Okay so this is going to be an exciting post because I have some new insights that I can share. First, I was thinking about that thing that Amy said about making the assessments more functional. Well I can't really change the tests because then it wouldn't match the other studies making the idea kind of obsolete. However, I was thinking that while I am in Mexico for the first little while, I will try to observe different activities that the people do (either the kids or the adults) that are similar to or use the same movements as the the things that I will be testing. Then when I test the kids I can compare it to that activity and they can maybe see the value in me doing the tests instead of telling me that I'm torturing them, like Amy said the kids in Ghana told her. I don't know about you but I think this is a good idea. So for instance, for the hurdle step, maybe there is a fence that the kids have to climb over everyday and I could say that with this test we can see how good they are at climbing over a fence without wobbling over or using support. I just have to figure out how to say wobbling in Spanish.
Another piece of advice that Amy mentioned was understanding the culture to know how to influence them to let me do this study. It sounds somewhat manipulative but Amy is so sweet I don't think she manipulated them at all. She just used it to her advantage. She said the the Ghanaian people are somewhat proud of their physical strength so when she would present them the project they were eager to demonstrate how they were, "of course" stronger than the fat Americans. That was kind of her hypothesis so it wasn't a terrible assumption on their part. Anyway, she said that made it easier for her. So she would emphasize that it was a comparative study regarding strength and the Ghanaians were very eager to help her. So, when I'm in Mexico I will be looking for indications of which part of the study the Mexican people will relate to and when I present the study I'll be sure to explain that part- and I wouldn't leave out other things of course. I wish I could think of some things now that I could prepare for. All I can really think of is that I just feel like all Latinos, Mexicans included, are so nice and so they will probably be willing to help me. This come from my interaction with them here in the States- but they might just be nice here because I am a little white girl who is willing to speak my cute Spanish with them. Anyway, this will be something that I think about.
In addition, in the IRB protocol whatnot that we had today I was told to try and think of more risks that might be involved in the study- just to be thorough. One risk I will emphasize earlier is the risk of working with children. I also thought of the risk of competition among the children. What will some children think if they don't get picked for the study or if their parents don't allow it? Also, there may be competition within the kids that get picked. I don't want to have any of the other subjects present while I am assessing another child. I wouldn't want that child to be embarrassed. There also may be some more obese children that feel uncomfortable doing these exercises because they get made fun of or for other reasons. And there is also my gender- some kids may be shy doing this in front of a girl. So I may need to think of a way to get someone to help me with that- maybe a teacher or someone. In any case, I need to minimize these risks and try to think of any others that I can include in the protocol just to be thorough.
So these are my new insights and I think they are pretty good. They have at least gotten me thinking a little bit about how I can better prepare for the culture of Mexico.
Voila!