Child Health Chart Flannelgraph, used to aid health workers in the use of child health charts, consisting of a cloth printed growth chart, a sheet of symbols to cut out and detailed teaching instructions, for use in the developing world, by TALC (Teaching Aids at Low Cost), St. Albans, England, 1992

Basic information such as age, height and weight were plotted upon growth charts produced by the charity Teaching Aids at Low Cost (TALC) (see 1992-891). This TALC child health flannelgraph helped health workers understand just how to do this. The flannelgraph was for use in the developing world and is deliberately ‘low tech’. It is made of a flannel-like cloth textile which sticks to most surfaces and requires no special teaching equipment. It came with a sheet of symbols which represent months of the year and ages. These would then be cut out and stuck upon the graph during teaching demonstrations for community groups, such as local mothers. Monitoring a child’s growth rate is one way of highlighting malnutrition and diagnosing the presence of disease.

Professor David Morley founded TALC in 1965. It was a response to overseas students requesting teaching materials they could use back in their own countries.