Growing up in a home where parents drink or use drugs increases the likelihood that you will do the same. But new research shows this link can be disrupted, and that the most important factor is how parents actually engage with their children every day.
Led by researchers at Østfold University College, the KidsLikeUs project aims to support traumatized children and refugees in the Baltic Sea Region. The initiative seeks to improve mental health, promote social inclusion, and foster community integration by creating sensory-friendly environments. In Norway, the project will first be tested in Halden municipality.
In public debates on welfare services, the question of how much money should be invested often take center stage. Voices from various political perspectives are in focus, but those who are the recipients of services are rarely heard. This includes children who go to kindergarten and school. The EMER network, which conducts research on resistance in the context of welfare provision, aims to change that.
From the forests of the tales of the Brothers Grimm to Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree, from the flowers of Cicely Mary Barker’s fairies to the treehouse in Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s popular 13-Storey Treehouse series, trees and other plants have been enduring features of stories for children and young adults. The brand-new book Plants in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, co-edited by Associate Professor Melanie Duckworth (Østfold University College) and Professor Lykke Guanio-Uluru (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences), maps out and presents an internationally inclusive view of plant representation in texts for children and young adults – and shows how this is far more than just a fairy tale.
