Peer Review

Attach from Scratch

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Feb 22, 2017 by Psychology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Author, blogger, and parent Birute Efe shares her "parenting journey" on the website she calls Attach from Scratch. Attach from Scratch explores attachment parenting and through a series of links and tabs addresses a variety of concepts such as attachment patterns, attachment style, and unique issues of attachment in scenarios such as adulthood and daycare. This website would be useful in general developmental psychology courses, along with courses specifically examining attachment theory across childhood, adulthood, and in parenting.

Type of Material:

Reference Material. NOTE: This is a personal website that could be used as a case study.

Recommended Uses:

• Overall, the provided material can be used for in class assignments, group projects, and lecture material. In particular, this website could be used as a case study for an assignment about parenting practices and issues. There are several videos, blog posts and even online birthing classes.

Technical Requirements:

Two peer reviewers successfully accessed and surfed the site using Google Chrome. This website offers a simple browsing experience. No technical requirements are needed.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The purpose of this website is to share the story of attachment parenting from the perspective of the blog’s author, Birute Efe. It is also a promotional site for her work as an author and educator for child birthing classes. After reviewing this website, students will be able to:

• Identify the psychological, social and biological processes of attachment parenting.

• Describe attachment theory and how it is practiced by some parents.

Target Student Population:

This site is primarily useful for undergraduate classes and at the introductory level. However, both undergraduates and graduates studying child rearing, parenting, child birthing and/or child development could derive benefit from the presented material.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Students would need to know how to navigate a website, distinguish between a personal narrative and promotional materials, and have a basic understanding of parenting and child birth.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

• This website offers a comprehensive look at one person’s experience with attachment parenting. Additionally, the website provides educational materials for people who want to learn more about what it is like to do attachment parenting.

• The website offers a breadth of information relating to the topic of human development and attachment theory.

• The website offers link-outs to a number of (current) external sites.

Concerns:

• The content on the website’s blog has not been updated since 2014, and the website does not provide sources to support research claims. (The author does reference sources when discussing Attachment Theory.) Additionally, the blog also includes promotional materials for the author’s work.

• Instructors using the site as a college course reference would want to augment the instruction by including links to peer-reviewed psychology journal articles.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: • This website offers a case study about attachment parenting. The author provides several videos to answer questions about topics such as breastfeeding and natural childbirth. • There is a list of resources that could be incorporated into a reading list for students. • The content within the site is brief and direct but discusses in a detailed fashion the important topics pertinent to understanding attachment in children, in adults, and from a parenting perspective. Information is simply stated and easy to follow.
Concerns:: • The website is not specifically designed for use in the classroom. Instructors who use the website as course learning resource will need to develop their own assignments (and associated learning outcomes).

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

• The website incorporates a lot of information and includes both written text and videos.

• Overall the site is simple to navigate, and it is easy for the visitor to understand what content is available in various locations. A particularly useful navigation feature is that the web pages include “back to top” links that allow the reader to easily jump back to the beginning of a page or section.

• The website graphics are professional-appearing and well-presented. This is a feature that will appeal to both instructors and students.

Concerns:

• As noted earlier, educators would need to build an assignment around the website.

Other Issues and Comments:: This website offers a story about one person’s experience with attachment parenting. The author has several written articles and videos, and includes contact information, which may be of benefit to students wanting to learn about the lived experience of attachment parenting.
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