Campaign Raises Awareness of Pediatric Palliative Care

Since September, a Children’s Hospital team composed of researchers and educational facilitators has been working with 4th and 5th grade students and their teachers from Childs Elementary School (located in South Philadelphia’s Point Breeze section) on a classroom-based anti-bullying program.

The 10-week program, called Preventing Relational Aggression in Schools Everyday (PRAISE, meets twice weekly to teach students problem-solving strategies for multiple forms of bullying, including physical, cyber, and relational aggression (such as the spreading of rumors). The program also stresses the empathy and perspective-taking skills.

The students learn these skills through innovative and engaging modalities, cartoons, videotape illustrations and role plays, developed by partnering with students, teachers, and parents over the past 10 years.

PRAISE is one component of CHOP’s Partner for Prevention program, a school-based bullying prevention program designed to help at-risk 3rd-5th grade students learn to recognize and control their anger while promoting friendship-making skills.

Study leader Stephen Leff, PhD, talked about the program in a recent blog post on the Center for Injury Research and Prevention website. He notes that the students had an opportunity last week to creatively share and explain what they’ve learned with Childs’ second grade students. And WHYY was there to cover the event.

You can read or listen to a feature on the event from WHYY’s Newsworks program covered the event.