AIDS Video Gets a Thumbs Up : Education: Youngsters are often unsure about what the illness is. Schools look to a new film to end their confusion.

Quiana Pugh, 7, has heard of AIDS. “My cousin says you can get it from worms,” she says. “AIDS is bad. I don’t like it.”

Her classmate at Wish School here, Monty Porter, 8, knows it has something to do with germs, but he isn’t too sure about the rest. “You can get germs on your hands if you pick up dirt or put things in your mouth,” he says.

Children are often confused about what AIDS is and isn’t.

That’s why Ruby Petersen of Mill Valley, Calif., a producer of educational videos for children, decided to create one about AIDS, aimed at children from 3 to 8 years old.

The video, called “Thumbs Up for Kids,” is surprisingly upbeat and entertaining, with songs that encourage audience participation. The program includes discussion of how germs are passed; good health habits, such as washing hands; the fact that the AIDS germ is different from others, such as cold germs, and that it is safe to play with someone who has AIDS.

“Most (children) are familiar with the word AIDS,” says Lynne Lanier, vice principal at Wish School, which is a public elementary school. “They couldn’t give you a detailed explanation, but they know it’s not good. . . . They know it has to do with sickness, they know it has to do with death. AIDS becomes like a scary monster. We can clear away some of these dark clouds around it by dealing with it in a way they can understand.”

Petersen, 44, began working with children as a speech pathologist in Farmington, Conn. She started her career in children’s television as Miss Nancy on “Romper Room and Friends” on KTVU, Channel 2 in San Francisco.

The 23-minute “Thumbs Up” video has been purchased for use by 1,200 elementary schools in California. Health-education teachers in Hartford will be using the video in the elementary schools this year.

“You have to entertain them, because it helps them to remember,” Petersen says. “It’s very non-threatening, like ‘Sesame Street.’ And they see me holding Brendan, and they see him playing with the other kids, which helps them to understand that you can’t get AIDS by touching someone.”

Brendan O’Rourke received the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion when he was born prematurely. In the video, he is seen receiving a kiss from Pope John Paul II. Brendan died at age 7 in August.

The video cautions against playing blood brother or blood sister, where you mingle your blood with someone else, or using the same needle to pierce your ears that someone else has used.

At Wish School, Petersen led the children through a question and answer session, where they clapped hands for yes and stomped their feet for no.

“The AIDS germ is different from other germs. It doesn’t live outside the body. It’s like a fish out of water. When it hits the air, it dies,” she says. “Can you spell the word AIDS? Do we mean parent aides, teacher’s aides, library aides?”

“No!” the children shout, stomping their feet.

“Is the AIDS germ on her hair? Is it on the table?” Petersen asks. “No, because it cannot live outside the body.”

Petersen says the youngsters will not get it all the first time they hear about AIDS, and that the information should be reinforced over time.

“They get a little fidgety after a while. To some, the word AIDS is just alphabet gobbledygook. But I look at their faces as I’m talking, and some of them are very intent. They are not about to be distracted by anything. Some of them have known people with AIDS, people in their family.”