Personal Safety for Birth-5

When's the best time to start teaching young children about personal safety?

It's a tough situation to navigate. It can't be avoided without serious consequences.

We want to warn kids of very real dangers without scaring them or making them anxious.

And so many situations are ambiguous.

A child I had just met yesterday told me that I shouldn't hold the baby I was caring for because I wasn't his mother. Interesting.

A friend had a stranger grab a child she was caring for by the hand and deliver her. Should the child have yelled No! Possibly. But 2-year-olds can't be expected to know what to say or think that fast. It turned out that the stranger's intentions were basically good, although misdirected. She was actually trying to help, not harm the child.

Since personal safety is more of an attitude than a precise set of skills I'm going to say that we need to start teaching personal safety to children as soon as they're born and continue as they grow older.

The question is how?

Repetition

Children learn better when truths are repeated over and over again. In early childhood education, we call it "the broken record technique". Here are a few examples;

• Do it the safe way.

• It's my body.

• It's your body.

• Be Gentle.

• I have skin too and some things hurt me like some things hurt you

• You can choose.

• Sometimes a parent or a doctor has to help you stay clean and healthy.

• I don't let anybody hit me!

• Good people can look different than what you are used to.

• Tricky people can look just fine, and still try to trick you.

• A stranger is just someone you don't know.

• Never believe a stranger who grabs your hand or tries to get you to look at something.

• Never believe a stranger that asks you for help.

• Most people are good, but a few people are tricky.

• If a tricky person tries to trick you, yell No! or No! You're not my mother (father) I don't know you!

• Yell it as loudly as you can.

  
  

*I added some books you might be interested in along with links to Amazon although I'm sure they could also be found in your local library or elsewhere.

Here are a few more things you can do to help with the process of teaching personal safety.

1)

Allow them to play. Play gives children a chance to try things out and find out what's acceptable and unacceptable to others. It lets them learn to make decisions on their own which is a great skill to have. It lets them practice assertiveness and body control.

2)

Teach them to communicate. Children need the proper words for all body parts, not just head, shoulders, knees, and toes!

Start talking during diaper changes and be matter-of-fact about discussing them using anatomically correct language.

3}

Talk about feelings.  first theirs then yours then others'. Look at picture books together and talk about how the characters might feel. Teach them to trust their feelings. Be open about your feelings, too.

4)

Listen without interruptions and without judgment. Let them know you're there for them anytime.

I created a poster for older kids who are out and about without parents and need a strategy for tricky people encounters should they happen. Feel free to copy it if it would be helpful.

If you ever feel at a loss for the right words to use to help young children listen without yelling or time outs, we have a short but sweet eBook for you. It's called Magic Words and you can get a free copy by joining our community here. In it we answer

questions like:

• What to say when a child hits

• What to say when a child won't clean up

• What to say when a child tattles

• What to say when a child procrastinates

• And more

Nanci J Bradley is an early childhood and family educator, author, teacher, family aerobics instructor, and an all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, healthy eating, lifelong learning, and most of all, PLAY! She studied early childhood ed at Triton College and received her BS in education in 1986 from NIU. She received her MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She lives and teaches in Madison WI.