Sparking curiosity with Twinkle, Twinkle Arti

Posted by Nicola Aldridge, Research Associate, and Cassey Muir, Research Associate / Co-lead of the Fuse Early Life and Adolescence Research Cluster, both from Newcastle University

We were recently given the exciting opportunity to showcase the Twinkle, Twinkle Arti project at Discover Festival, a free, one-day festival organised by Newcastle University that brings together families, communities, and researchers through interactive activities and inspiring ideas.

Nicola and Cassey

Discover Festival is designed to spark curiosity, build connections, and encourage people of all ages to explore new ideas. Each year, the university creates a packed programme of family-friendly events, and this year, we were delighted to be part of it as members of the Twinkle, Twinkle Arti research team.

Bringing Arti's story to life

Throughout the day, we invited families to step into Arti’s world through the Twinkle, Twinkle Arti storybook. Developed by Fuse researchers at Newcastle University, with funding from the NIHR School for Public Health Research, the book was created and co-produced with families to support the wellbeing of children experiencing challenging family circumstances, such as drug and alcohol use. While these experiences inspired the story, its themes of feelings, belonging, resilience, and hope resonate with all children.

Visitors to our stall in the Great North Museum had the chance to watch a CBeebies Bedtime Stories style video of it being read aloud by the author. They could also explore puppets and original illustrations from the book, and view artwork created by primary school-aged children who had participated in a pilot study of classroom lessons based on the story.

Families were also able to take home a free copy of the storybook, along with a link to the online read-aloud video and a set of simple conversation prompts designed to encourage creativity, emotional expression, and meaningful family time at home. We handed out nearly 80 copies on the day!

Conversations that matter

Beyond engaging with families, it was equally exciting to see the conversations that the project sparked among professionals attending the festival. We spoke with people from a range of sectors, including teaching, school governance, clinical psychology, and general practice with social prescribing links. Their curiosity about the project and enthusiasm for its potential applications highlighted the broad relevance of Twinkle, Twinkle Arti and the importance of creating accessible resources that support children's emotional and social wellbeing.

One particularly rewarding conversation was with a family who shared their personal experience of the impact of alcohol on family life and how they might be able to use the book. Hearing their reflections was both moving and affirming. It served as a powerful reminder of why the project began in the first place and reinforced the continued need for resources that help children navigate difficult experiences. Moments like these bring the research to life, reminding us that behind every study, storybook, and activity are real families whose experiences matter and whose voices continue to shape our work.

Creating a community star mural

Another highlight of the day was our evolving community star mural. We invited children to create their own star by drawing, colouring, or writing ideas about what they or Arti could do when they felt sad or worried, with 114 stars being created on the day. It was wonderful to see children enthusiastically embracing the activity, and even more special to watch parents, carers and grandparents join in too, talking to their children about the messages in the book. The excitement on their faces as they added their stars to the mural was a lovely reminder of the power of creativity to bring people together.

A colourful celebration of hope and resilience

By the end of the day, the mural had grown into a colourful display of hope, kindness, and imagination. It was a privilege to share the Twinkle, Twinkle Arti project with so many families and to see first-hand how children connected with Arti’s story and messages of hope, resilience and belonging. Events like Discover Festival provide a fantastic opportunity to bring research into the community, and we were grateful to be part of such an inspiring day.

Find out more about Twinkle, Twinkle Arti

• Read this Fuse blog about the development of Twinkle, Twinkle Arti
• Read about Twinkle, Twinkle Arti as a NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) case study
• Read about piloting Twinkle, Twinkle Arti in primary schools
• Listen to this Fuse podcast to hear Cassey discussing her research on social and emotional resilience in children and young people affected by parental substance use.
• Download the book for free.
• Watch a video of the book being read aloud.

From the office to Eastern Africa: how digital technologies can be used to assess diet

Guest post by Emma Foster, Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition, Human Nutrition Research Centre, Newcastle University

Life in academia can be tough at times. It can be difficult to switch off, the list of tasks can seem never ending and just when you think things are going to quieten down along comes that call for proposals that you simply can’t miss.

I’ve worked at Newcastle University for almost 20 years now and throughout that time my research has focused on improving how we measure dietary intake. In the early years this involved going into school and talking to children and parents, which was always good fun. More recently we’ve been working with adults developing online systems for measuring intake along with colleagues at Open Lab. The work is really interesting and I’m enormously proud of the system we have produced but life is predominantly office based now.

Earlier this year though, my enthusiasm for work was suddenly re-ignited with a slight change in focus for my research. For 12 days in February I left behind my 6 year old son (bad mummy!) and my husband and headed off to do some research looking at how digital technologies could be used to assess dietary intake in Africa. Along with my colleague - research associate Maisie Rowland - I headed to Tanzania to learn about the food environment there, looking at the range of foods available, and the way things are cooked, served and eaten. We also looked at the uptake of technology such as use of smartphones and internet access. We started our visit in Moshi near Kilimanjaro (every time I say Kilimanjaro I still break into a smile). The weather there was lovely and warm and the people were too. We’d been put in touch with a school teacher, Amina who showed us around two primary schools and one secondary school in the area. Seeing the cooking facilities at the schools was really eye opening. The schools all cooked over wood fires.

I was amazed at the secondary school kitchen; this was what I had expected to find in the homes in poorer rural communities but not in a large (700+ pupils) secondary school. Yet the staff managed to cook enough food to feed all of the students and had taken the time to provide information for us on the common local foods.

Every day for school lunch the children got maize and beans, one of the schools added oil to the mixture to make sure the children got some fat in their diet. Children brought a bowl, plate or other container (some had margarine tubs) and most ate with their hands. The children ate their food outside. Amina invited us over for dinner one evening. “I thought I’d cook you banana stew and elephant leg” she said, monitoring our faces for a reaction. Politely we said “that sounds lovely” but we clearly looked a bit worried before Amina roared with laughter and told us that elephant leg was a vegetable….it just got its name because it apparently looks a bit like one!

Before we left Moshi we got to tour the local food markets, where people buy the majority of their food. There was very little in the way of pre-packaged foods consumed.

Our next stop was Dar es Salaam where we worked with the Tanzanian Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC). We conducted two workshops, one with nutritionists, dietitians, food technologists and public health workers at the TFNC, which Maisie and I ran in English, and one with a rural community group which the TFNC researchers ran in Swahili. Through the workshops we gathered lots of information about the foods consumed and how these differed between regions, the time of year, celebrations and droughts, and how people would share recipes and consume foods. We learned that African power cuts can last a whole day - the workshop at the TFNC was done in 35 degree heat with the power (and therefore air conditioning) off! We discovered that the foods we were served for breakfast at the hotel were usually only reserved for celebrations for the local population.

We took our research very seriously and ate at a wide variety of restaurants, cafes and street food stalls. The food over there was really tasty. For breakfast every day we had an amazing beef stew that we got the recipe for. I’ve tried to re-create it but mine isn’t quite up to scratch, I think it’s probably to do with the way that they rear the cows rather than my cooking skills....

We plan to work with the staff at TFNC to put in a proposal to the Global Challenges Research Fund with the aim to develop a technology based method of assessing dietary intake that will enable them to run what would be the first National dietary survey for Tanzania.

….Now back to the office for some proposal writing to get us back out there. Next time I might even take the family with me!

Supporting vulnerable communities in Australia and the UK: linking data through knowledge exchange

Posted by Theodora Machaira, PhD student at Teesside University

On the 8th of March we were pleased to welcome Jen Lorains, researcher from Australia, in Fuse. Jen was successful in winning a Winston Churchill fellowship and decided to visit Fuse as her main research interest is knowledge exchange and translational research.

As part of her visit, Jen delivered a Knowledge Exchange Seminar on ‘Early Childhood Data with Communities in Australia’. Her presentation focused on the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) which is a national census which measures physical health, social skills, communication and general knowledge, language skills and emotions of 5 years old children. The AECD data is publically available and although it is not primarily used for knowledge exchange, it certainly facilitates it by enabling key stakeholders in early years to work with the data in order to improve child development outcomes.

Theodora (left) with Jen Lorains

Jen’s presentation was interesting on a number of levels but from a PhD researcher’s point of view, two things were most striking. First of all, thinking about child development assessments in diverse populations, I felt that Australia and the UK are not as different as I thought. In Australia, diversity exists mainly between indigenous and non-indigenous populations. Indigenous Australians have their own language, rituals and beliefs, which in early years and education settings can be challenging to deal with. Although, diversity in the UK is different and not as clear cut with many different cultures calling the country their home, diversity is also an issue over here and is now perhaps more prominent than ever. With that in mind, I was wondering, how fair (or accurate for that matter), is it to collect data on child development from all 5 years old children in English? Isn’t it possible that an indigenous child has good communication skills but in a different language? Of course, this cannot necessarily be taken into consideration in a national census. But surely that begs the question, are we classing children as having delayed development when perhaps we shouldn’t?

The second thing that got my attention was the issues with knowledge exchange in Australia that Jen discussed. She talked about how different professionals use the data and how challenging it is to have everyone on board when trying to develop common approaches to help children in areas where vulnerable children are identified as different professionals identify different solutions for highlighted problems. As my PhD focuses on systems change and developing a common approach between early years’ professionals, I again, thought about the similarities between Australia and the UK. Perhaps foolishly (I am only a year into my PhD!) I thought that these issues are a UK phenomenon, however, I quickly realised during Jen’s presentation that they are not.

Intrigued by these observations, I started talking to Jen after the seminar (and because Jen had an hour and a half to kill before her train) we decided to go for a drink after her seminar. Although some people might disagree, I thought that the pub was a great setting for knowledge exchange! We discussed my and her thoughts having travelled to the UK, USA, Canada and Peru, and realised that using research data with different communities in these counties requires researchers to be skilled in knowledge exchange. This will enable researchers to include these communities in interpreting the data and developing useful interventions with these communities. This might sometimes feel like fighting a lost battle but is essential to support vulnerable children identified through collected census data.