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Early Childhood - Child Protection
Helping children to be safe is one of our most important duties. Teaching self protection skills can be valuable and rewarding.
Self protection skills are one way to help children to be safe or know how to find safety.
Training around the state
FPQ regularly offers workshops and training to support parents, carers and professionals in learning strategies to talk about sexuality and relationships and keeping children and young people safe. Visit our training calendar to see what’s on. FPQ can also provide accredited training tailored to your organisation's needs. Contact us for more information.
Resources to help keep kids safe
There are many resources that can help parents, carers and professionals feel more confident when talking with children about child protection.
Everyone’s got a bottom is FPQ’s award winning book that helps parents and carers gently start a conversation about protecting our bodies in a respectful and age appropriate manner.
FPQ’s Feel Safe educational CD Rom teaches young people with learning needs about self protection. The CD Rom includes 9 games that teach self protection in a fun and interactive way.
Our I have a right to be safe booklet for children and Feel Safe – promoting self protection factsheet for parents and carers are free to download – and offer important information to help teach and learn self protection skills.
Where do I start?, our early childhood development package, has strategies for early childhood staff and parents to talk to children under 5 about self protection.
FPQ’s Positive and protective workbook series for lower primary and upper primary schools includes worksheets and activities on naming body parts identifying public and private body parts, and identifying feelings and safety networks – all essential components to child protection.
FPQ worked in partnership with Department of Communities, Child Safety Services to produce resources to support foster and kinship carers to have conversations about sexuality and relationships with the children and young people in their care. They are free on the Department of Communities, Child Safety Services website http://www.communities.qld.gov.au/childsafety/foster-care/resources-and-publications/carer-info-sheets
Other Resources
- Ignorance is not innocence by Holly Brennan
- Speech given by Professor Freda Briggs at the Wendy Darvill forum on early childhood sexuality education held by Family Planning Queensland in Brisbane on Tuesday, 9 November 2007
- ‘Keep Telling Until Someone Listens’: Understanding Prevention
Concepts in Children’s Picture Books Dealing with Child Sexual Abuse
by Jo Lampert and Kerryann Walsh. Published in Children‘s
Literature in Education
Volume 41, Number 2, 146-167.
The complete article is available for purchase at: http://www.springerlink.com.
Read the abstract.
Child protection matters
Children are never too young to learn about being safe and whom they can talk to if they need help. Parents and carers have an important role to play in helping reduce the risk of childhood sexual abuse.
Learning about self protection includes talking about feelings, bodies and privacy, assertiveness, understanding relationships, identifying the rules about touch and knowing what to do if the rules are broken.
Parents and carers can help children by making time to talk and time to listen. They can also help by reminding children that they are always there if needed. Do not worry about giving too much information; children will only take in as much information as they are able to understand. Remember to be brief, positive and factual.
We can all take time to teach children how to be safe. We can all learn to observe signs that something is wrong and listen to and believe children when they show or tell us what is going on. If you are worried about a child -- do something. This could mean actively observing a child, having gentle age appropriate discussions with a child, using evidenced based resources in your home, child care centre or school. If you suspect a child has been harmed - report it. We all have a responsibility to help keep kids safe.
Morcombes lead way for children
The Daniel Morcombe tragedy has meant that across Australia child protection is in the forefront of people's minds. Holly Brennan, Queensland’s Child Protection Week Chair, wrote this Courier-Mail editorial about how child protection is everybody’s business. [read editorial]