Teaching Children About Touch Safety
How can we teach a child about good touch and bad touch? Discuss, giving examples.
Teaching Children About Touch Safety
Parents often teach their children about ways to keep themselves safe, like looking both ways while crossing the street, wearing seatbelts, not taking anything from strangers, etc, but they forget to teach their children about good touch and bad touch. As a result, one in four girls and one in thirteen boys are sexually abused in their childhood.
Let’s discuss how we can teach a child about good and bad touch.
1. Teach children that they are the boss of their bodies.
Teach the children about body safety in simple ways. You can start this discussion as easily as possible but the right age will be two years old.
Tell them about their bodies. Start by addressing how they keep their bodies clean.
For example: Start by saying, “Let’s think of ways to keep your body healthy and keep your body safe.” Then proceed further by labeling what you are doing in your daily routine.
If you want your child to have ownership of their bodies and teach them to set comfortable boundaries.
2. Don’t force any kind of touch.
Parents are encouraging social skills by encouraging ownership of one’s body. This is important that kids see that they are in control of their bodies.
Children can feel uncomfortable sometimes at different times due to different reasons. Therefore we shouldn’t force them to use their bodies in a way they don’t want to. Give them options.
For example, “Uncle is here! You can give Uncle a hug or a high five.”
3. Use the proper words for certain body parts.
All parents don’t use the correct language for bodies; instead, they sometimes use nicknames. But we should use the right names just as we would’ve done for other body parts. Kids may sense parents’ awkwardness around talking about certain body parts and think it’s something to be ashamed of. We need to get rid of that mentality.
For eg: If you tell your children the proper names or biological names and tell them these are the words used by doctors, it will strengthen their ability to communicate about certain body parts. As a result, it will create more openness and less secrecy.
4. Keep the right tone.
Parents usually avoid the topic, saying children are too young and the subject might be scary. But there are other ways to bring it up normally. Maybe it’s at bath time, on the way to a doctor’s check-up, or before swim lessons.
Example: If you revisit your child to those places mentioned above frequently and briefly during those natural times, it doesn’t feel so heavy. It’s normal for kids to have questions related to that, and it might feel silly to you. However, try to limit your reactions to being supportive and matter-of-fact.
5. Talk about good touch versus bad touch
Teach your kids about different kinds of touches. Safe touches feel caring, like pats on the head or wanted hugs. Unsafe touches that feel scary or hurt your body or feelings, such as pinching or hitting. Kids should know it’s alright to say no even if it’s a family member or friend.
For example, tell you’re kids that good touches are a soothing feeling like they are helping, like a hug from mom when you fall. Bad touches make you feel scared, and you want them to stop.
– Written By Aashutosh
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