Supporting Protective Behaviours in Young Children

According to Australian Government (FAHCSIA) “Protective behaviours’ refers to a proactive and empowering set of preventative and adaptable living skills that enable people to develop workable strategies to better help them preserve their physical and emotional safety in unsafe, or potentially unsafe situations”

Consider this statement in the context of children’s lives…. Teaching children protective behaviours will provide children with the skills to assert themselves, build confidence and their self esteem  and know how to respond to certain situations.  It is about EMPOWERING children!

So, how do we do this in the early childhood setting?

Start with a conversation…

We need to start firstly by having a conversation about safety and linking this to something relevant to the child such as wearing a helmet when bike riding, holding an adult’s hand when crossing the road.

Questions you can start with…

– What makes us safe?

– When are you safe?

– How do you feel when you are safe?

– What makes us feel unsafe?

Make connections…

We can then make connections between “feelings and emotions” and how they make us feel- hence connecting the words and physiological state.

By making these connections children can then identify situations and people who make them feel safe and unsafe. Once that connection is made we can introduce the concept of “Safe Hand” or “Safe Adults”. These are 5 people who are close to the child and who are adults who make the child feel safe. These are the people we identify as our “Safe hand” and the people we talk too or get help from when we feel unsafe.

Exploring Protective Behaviours is much more than a one off program. The language should be embedded into your practice so that children understand what “being” and “feeling” safe mean, how they can seek help as well as building self-esteem and resilience.

For more information on protective behaviours including private parts, secrets and resilience please join my “Protective Behaviour and Resilience” webinar: http://earlyyearstraining.com.au/workshops/staff/