Learning Activities

All Learning Activities
	Active Listening to Provide Emotional Support Am I Normal? Exploring Preteens' Personal Concerns about Puberty Condom Wise Conducting a U.S. Teen Pregnancy Survey Connectedness and the "Emotional Bank Account" Contraceptive Options Delaying Tactics Desarrollo en la Pubertad y la Adolescencia — a puberty workshop for parents in Spanish Emergency Contraception: Good Reasons to Use it for Emergencies Only Express Yourself Family Activities to Promote Parent-Child Connectedness Five Fun Ways to Form Small Groups Gender Lifelines Helping a Friend Who Has Been Sexually Abused How Do I Rate? — A Personalization Activity Importance of Friendship Including Gay and Lesbian Youth Looking for Love? Not Always! Exploring the Variety of Human Relationships — an activity for developmentally disabled youth Making Connections: Identifying the Links Between Body Image and Sexual Health Making Difficult Decisions Not Doing It is Not Enough: Defining Abstinence with Teens Online Teen Scavenger Hunt Our Amazing Bodies — Every Part Deserves a Proper Name Parenting Style and Parent-Child Connectedness Puberty and Adolescent Development — a workshop for parents Puberty and Growing Up — a workshop for youth Responding to Your Adolescent Scavenger Hunt: What's New in Contraception and Reproductive Health Self Esteem: The IALAC Story Sex and Alcohol: A Risky Mix Sex and Sexuality: Understanding the Difference Sex on TV: Teens and Parents Talk Six Simple Strategies for Including Gay and Lesbian Youth Talking with Your Child About Sexuality Teaching about Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) The Alanzo and Briana Story The Board Meeting The Culture Connection Toward Understanding...Some of Us are Lesbian or Gay Try This Five-Minute Transition Activity TV Smarts Understanding Adolescent Development Using Positive Reinforcement to Increase Connectedness Wait for Sex Curriculum Sessions What's Your Advice? Adult Male - Teen Female Relationships When Is It Okay?

Family Activities to Promote Parent-Child Connectedness

In a report published by SIECUS titled "Innovative Approaches to Increase Parent-Child Communication about Sexuality: Their Impact and Example from the Field," sexuality education homework assignments were cited as a promising intervention because of their success in encouraging students and their parents to talk about sexuality related issues.

Homework assignments may involve many more parents than other parent interventions (e.g., workshops, newsletters) because so many students are motivated to complete homework assignments.

This month's learning activity provides ReCAPP users with a set of three homework assignments or "family activities" taken from ETR's Wait for Sex after-school program for middle school youth. Wait for Sex family activities are short take-home assignments designed for youth and parents to complete together. The family activities provided in this issue are:

The purpose of these activities is three-fold:

to encourage parent-child communication about goal setting, puberty and abstinence,
to reinforce key messages about these topics from after-school sessions, and
to give parents a way to be involved with the Wait for Sex program.

For context, the Wait for Sex after-school sessions corresponding to the family activities are also provided as pdf documents. These are:

Wait for Sex Session 4 on Goal Setting
Wait for Sex Session 12 on Puberty and Growing Up, and
Wait for Sex Session 16 on Abstinence

Note: Links on this page with the Portable Document Format icon (pdf) require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print them. You can download this free software at: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

Keep in mind that not all youth can talk to their parents about sexuality-related issues for a variety of reasons. If you decide to use or adapt the family activities presented here, give youth the alternative of talking to a parent or another trusted adult.

For more information about the SIECUS report, contact SIECUS at www.siecus.org or 202-462-2340.

The development of the Wait for Sex program was funded by the federal Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP). For more information about the Wait for Sex program, contact Lori Rolleri at lorir@etr.org.

top

Join Our Email List!

Learning Activities

Family Activities to Promote Parent-Child Connectedness