Safety Training Net -Aug '24 🤯 🖼️&💬 🙇🏿♂️ ♻️
Mental Health Conversations, Dual Coding, Safety Concentration, a new TWH book, What's in Their Bag, Sustainability Integration, and secret link for VIPs
How to Talk About Mental Health
Safety and health professional Sondra Lavoie, CSP, ASP, CHST, understands the importance of discussing mental health in the workplace and frequently presents on the topic of mental health in construction. Sondra provided the information in the following infographic to help you have these important conversations. I have adapted the original infographic so that it can also be used as an interactive activity. To download both, click here. For more information, you can reach out to Sondra on LinkedIn.
Dual Coding - Use it to Your Advantage
In the world of safety training, the challenge is not just to provide information but to ensure that it sticks. Dual coding, a cognitive theory that can significantly enhance retention and understanding, can help.
Dual coding theory suggests that information processed in both verbal and visual forms is more likely to be remembered. This is because it engages two separate cognitive systems: the verbal system, which deals with language, and the non-verbal system, which handles images. When both systems work in tandem, they create multiple mental pathways for information retrieval, enhancing memory and recall.
How can you take advantage of this when creating and delivering safety training?
Present information visually as well as verbally. Visual aids like diagrams, flowcharts, and images help solidify learning.
Use visual representations to simplify complex instructions, making them easier to understand. For instance, a diagram of a fire extinguisher’s parts alongside a step-by-step textual guide on its use allows trainees to visualize and understand the process better.
Incorporate visuals and text to make materials more interactive and less monotonous, capturing and holding trainee attention. A great way to do this is with infographics, which I often include and discuss in monthly newsletters.
Ensure that visual and verbal information is synchronized. Visual aids should directly relate to and enhance the textual content, rather than serve as a decorative element.
Reinforce learning by repeating key concepts through both verbal and visual means. This repetition can help solidify the material in the trainee’s mind.
Include interactive elements like quizzes or practical demonstrations utilizing verbal and visual cues. This can help assess understanding and reinforce learning in a dynamic way.
In safety training, the ultimate goal is to ensure that every participant not only understands the content but also remembers - and uses it - when it counts. Dual coding can help achieve this by engaging both verbal and visual systems. The next time you create safety training materials, remember the dual coding theory and consider whether you have implemented some of the key concepts. If not, try to add in a few dual coding strategies and see how it works. Your trainees will thank you!
Dual Coding Activity
Many of the safety training activities presented in this newsletter rely on dual-coding. Activities like Safety Sequence and Safety Lotería involve an image and a text description. (If you are unfamiliar with these activities and want to try them out, you can download a sample of each here.)
Another simple dual coding activity is Safety Concentration. Many people are familiar with the card game concentration which involves putting all cards in a deck face down on a table and then players take turns picking up two cards to see if they match. While this game is purely for fun and relies on memory, it can be adapted to create a dual-coding safety training activity. I originally tried to include instructions in this newsletter but it was too long so if you are interested, you can click over to the latest blog post on SafetyFUNdamentals.com and read how to create your own. A sample set of Safety Concentration cards has been created for VIP subscribers and can be downloaded at the link in the VIP section below. Note: Since fire safety month is quickly approaching, this sample deck is focused on fire safety.
Special Offer
I am proud to announce that one of my latest projects is available for pre-order! For the past two years I have been working with 15 phenomenal safety, health, and wellness professionals to create a new book on TWH. The book, The Wiley Guide to Strategies, Ideas, and Applications for Implementing a Total Worker Health Program, is available for pre-order AND I am happy to share a special 20% off discount code with all subscribers. To learn more about the book, click here. To get your discount, use code AUTH20.
What’s In Your Bag - Joann Robertson
Each month, I like to highlight a subscriber so they can share what they carry with them so they are always prepared. This month, meet long time subscriber Joann Robertson. You can reach out to Joann at joannrobertson@hotmail.com.
What’s Up in September?
The 12th anniversary of the Ali Enterprises Garment Factory Fire occurs on September 11th. Although this tragedy occurred 101 years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, many of the same factors led to this disaster, in which 250 workers lost their lives, including locked exits, lack of safety equipment and training, the presence of flammable materials, overcrowding, negligence and lack of enforcement. When preparing training and educational materials for Fire Safety Week in October, consider adding the story of the Ali Enterprises Garment Factory Fire into your materials. One idea is to provide a short case study or article on both tragedies to teams of trainees and ask them to identify the similarities and differences, as well as suggestions for how the tragedies could have been prevented.