Health / Safety Workers FAQ

Which health/safety professionals use Giddy?

Police, ambulance, fire officers, community health nurses, health promotion officers, doctors, electricity education personnel, industrial safety officers……..


What are some examples of ways Giddy Goanna can be used and what comments have other health/safety professionals made?

• It grabs attention, as nearly all children in Australia know Giddy from watching TV.
• Children see it as entertainment and actually want to learn about what Giddy teaches them.
• It gets children thinking about health and safety issues in a broader sense than just what is covered in the Giddy books. It gives them a way to approach real-life, as the children are used to thinking and making decisions in Giddy’s books.
• Indigenous children respond well to the Giddy Goanna program, and it is often hard to find programs so acceptable and effective for these communities.
• Children of all types relate well to Giddy Goanna because it is not particular looking child (sex, hair/skin colour…)


How does the Giddy Goanna program work?

………….(positive learning style,, children learn to think and make decisions)


How does Giddy Goanna influence and improve what parents, grandparents and other relevant adults do?

Please refer to Parents FAQ and General FAQ


Does Giddy Goanna have any handouts that we can give away at health expos / field days or put into sample bags?

Giddy has a range of pencils, balloons, stickers and empty sample bags, which can be purchased. See Giddy’s shop.
Being a low budget non-profit organization, Giddy cannot afford to give away any resources. However, for particular organizations (non-profit, health, education…), we offer a pack of A$45 worth of freebies with the purchase of a Full set of books purchased. This package involves 100 fun-sheets, 100 information/order forms, 100 hand-stickers (or 100 bookmarks), 2 large posters (A2), 16 medium posters (A3) and a colour-in sheet (for you to photocopy necessary quantity). Please phone (07) 4639 3888 or email giddy@giddygoanna.org to organise these packs.

What are the Giddy Goanna Demonstration Days?

Please refer to Teacher FAQ and the Overview booklet.


Has Giddy Goanna been evaluated?

Giddy Goanna has been externally evaluated with very positive results several times by personnel from various universities. The Giddy Goanna program has proven to improve the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of both children and adults.

Some professionals say that children can’t learn from animal characters, is this true?

There are many professionals and experts who do not agree with those who say children can’t learn from animal characters. We are not academic experts, but have received praise from thousands of people who have seen for themselves how Giddy Goanna has improved the health/safety knowledge/attitudes/behaviours of children and adults. We can also provide real-life examples of how the behaviours of children and their parents/grandparents have improved due to Giddy Goanna. These are situations that people have reported to us:-
• …………

Do you think it is dangerous having the pictures of the Careless Cousins doing unsafe things, as children might copy these?

Experts have advised that children in our target group love a hero and naturally want to be the hero, such as bat-man, superman… Therefore they say that children will want to be Giddy Goanna, the hero who is the cool character. External Evaluation and anecdotal feedback on Giddy Goanna, consistently reports that children align with Giddy Goanna, and the Careless Cousins are thought to be stupid and silly. We try very hard with our artwork to depict Giddy as the cool character and the Careless Cousins in an unappealing manner.

Can Giddy Goanna make a local appearance?

At present we have ceased hiring out Giddy Goanna, due to the high expense of maintaining and replacing the costumes. We are investigating other means of enabling Giddy to make live appearances, as children always get such enjoyment out of seeing and meeting Giddy Goanna live. Please refer to Future FAQ for information of Giddy’s proposed Live Tours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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