ECS SRC Colloquium Lecture Series 1

The School of Early Childhood Studies Scholarly, Research and Creative activities committee invites you to join us at an upcoming colloquium:

Title: Children's right to participate in health care decision-making
Presenter: Dr. Amarens Matthiesen

International and national frameworks on children’s rights place children’s participation in decision-making at the top of the political agenda. The Netherlands is a country that consistently ranks particularly high on numerous international and European rankings, including rankings related to children’s rights, health, wellbeing, and happiness. In pediatric health care practice, however, children’s rights to participation in decision-making can be challenging to implement. This presentation draws on findings from a focused ethnographic doctoral study exploring the perspectives of twelve child life specialists and five hospital directors on children’s participation in decision-making across two pediatric hospitals in the Netherlands. The findings provide insight into the complex, relational, and contextual elements that can shape children’s participation in decision-making, including the attitudes of healthcare providers and the role of legal frameworks and guidelines. The study findings call for a strengthened and more critical manner of recognizing children’s right to participation in decision-making in pediatric health care practices.
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Title: “We Are Sexual Too!”: Empowering Youth with Disabilities Through Collaborative Resources
Presenter: Dr. Amy McPherson

Taking a life course approach, this talk will describe work that aims to reduce stigma and ensure that youth with disabilities are more fully represented and supported in sexual education, research, and knowledge translation across Canada. As part of a broader project, we established two Youth Advisory Councils (YAC), where youth with disabilities could openly share their experiences related to sexuality, and collaboratively develop educational resources on topics that were most important to them. The resources developed with the YAC members- including videos and brief handouts-provide practical, user-friendly tools for youth, families, educators, and healthcare providers to engage in more inclusive discussions around sexuality and disability. The principles used in the collaborative process will be described to highlight the importance of offering flexible, accessible participation methods to ensure the full inclusion of youth voices.