Teaching Protective Behaviours to Young Children

This programme aims to provide children aged 4-7 years with awareness and strategies for keeping safe. Although it may be difficult to accept, children and young people from any community, including those with disabilities, can be put at risk of harm, abused or hurt, regardless of their age, gender, religion or ethnicity. All children have the right to be safeguarded from abuse or neglect so they have the opportunity to reach their potential and be successful adults.Protective behaviours teaches children to develop an awareness of personal safety; helps them to identify and express their feelings; make choices and solve problems. First Steps to Safety has taken the core protective behaviour principles and created a teaching framework with overarching aims, with supporting lesson plans, resources and activities, in a 10 week programme that can be picked up and used by anyone in school wanting to empower children and young people of any age and any capability to develop personal safety.The information and strategies provided to children are generic and applicable across a range of situations that may arise, for example bullying, internet safety, being harmed, feeling sad or feeling unsafe. Sessions include:my body partsshowing my feelingsmy body, thoughts and feelings all go togetherfeeling safebehaviour choicesto empower children to feel safe and know they have a right to fee safeto give children the confidence and ability to assertively manage their own safetyto teach children the skills to take responsibility for their own bodies, thoughts, feelings and behaviourto enable children with a range of communication abilities to ask for helpfor children to have awareness of their body, thoughts, feelings and behaviourhave a vocabulary to express how their thoughts and feelings affect their bodiesknow the early warning signs for feeling unsafeknow they can make different behaviour choices based on feelingsknow who good people are to go to for help and how to ask for help.