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 Prevention Of Sexual Abuse

The Safe Child Program focuses on Prevention of Sexual Abuse in preschool, kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 3. The training begins with children's natural abilities, what they already know and the experiences they've already had. The fundamental messages in prevention of child abuse by people known to the child include:

VIDEO  Your Body Belongs to You Prevention Strategy

• Your body belongs to you.
• You have a right to say who touches you and how
• If someone touches you in a way you don't like, in a way that makes you feel funny or uncomfortable inside, or in a way that you think is wrong, or your parents would think is wrong, it's okay to say "no."
• If the person doesn't stop, say, "I'm going to tell" and then tell, no matter what.

VIDEO  The I'm Going to Tell Strategy

• If you're asked to keep a secret, say, "No, I'm going to tell." I
• f you have a problem, keep talking about it until someone helps you.

Children learn that they can have some control over what happens to their bodies when we teach them -- and when we show them through our own behavior -- that their bodies do indeed belong to them.

VIDEO  Safe Child Program uses role-play to teach skills.

Children as young as two and three already know what touching they like and what touch they don't like. Touching they don't like makes them feel uneasy and seems wrong to them. This approach to prevention gives them permission to speak-up. It teaches them how to speak-up effectively and in a way that is appropriate.

These prevention of child abuse techniques must be learned not just as ideas, but as real skills. This means practice. Part of effective prevention education includes role-play, giving children an opportunity to see how it feels to say "no" in a difficult situation. Parents can do some of this, but the essence of the classroom programs is actually giving children an opportunity to practice these skills so they can really use them if they should need to. Just as children don't learn to ride a bicycle by talking or reading about bicycling, children don't learn to prevent child abuse without opportunities to work with the techniques, to practice and feel comfortable with the skills.

"...children who had been given a chance to practice skills in class were indeed more likely to say they had used the skills in real life, to have said no to an adult, to have told someone and to have helped a friend." David Finkelhor and Jennifer Dzuiba-Leatherman; "Victimization Prevention Programs: A National Survey of Children's Exposure and Reactions" Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, 1993.

The behavior and comments of perpetrators suggest that prevention programs are indeed having a positive impact. Sexual abuse offenders interviewed by various researchers report that they are deterred by a child who indicates that he or she would tell a specific adult about the assault. (National Committee For the Prevention of Child Abuse Memorandum, 1/90)

  FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE SAFE CHILD PROGRAM,

GO TO TABLE OF CONTENTS or SAFE CHILD BOOK

 

Copyright © 1996-2008 Coalition for Children, Inc., Sherryll Kraizer, Ph.D.