FREE eBook on Protecting Your Child’s Personal Safety
July 20th 2007 by Megan Bayliss in Child Safety & Protection
Science News quotes that “Children taught about sexual abuse in school are better able to recognize signs of abuse and do more to protect themselves, researchers said on Wednesday.” Interesting. Other research (1) done by the Crime and Misconduct Commission in Australia suggests that school based protective behaviour learning is state dependent: children may remember it at school and that learning about safety plans once a year, or every six months, is insufficient for the learning to remain embedded in a child’s memory. I would hardly say then that these children are better able to recognise signs of potential abuse!
Statistics on child sexual abuse differ according to a variety of reasons. One thing that researchers and advocates do agree on though is that 85% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by somebody well known to the child - somebody who has access to the child on a regular basis and most probably in the child’s home.
What good is state dependent class room learning about recognising signs of abuse then if most abuse occurs at home? While some learning about protection from sexual predators is better than none at all, surely it would make sense to give parents the tools of protective behaviour knowledge and skill so that they can teach their own children at home, on a daily basis.
Imaginif has developed an at home training program of protective behaviours making it easy for parents to know what to talk about, how to teach it without scaring the kids, and hints on how often they should revisit the material in order to provide their children maximum protection from sexual predators. The BITSS to remember will model to you all the important BITSS in keeping your children free from sexual assault. This important personal safety training is parent sense, from one parent to another.
To get a FREE copy of a ten page tutorial, jam packed with simple play ideas, games and activities for protective play, simply register in Imaginif’s Safety Talk forum. Once registered, you will immediately receive a personal and automated message with a link to your tutorial.
Along with helping you to keep your children safe, the protective behaviour tutorial is yours to print and distribute as many times as you like. Do it now. Do not allow your child to become a child abuse statistic, or rely upon other people to teach your child personal safety information at school. There are no gimmicks or tricks associated with this. The tutorial is designed to be in the homes of children, keeping them safe, and not with teachers or professionals who may only get to teach your child personal safety once a year.
Related Protective Behaviour Articles:
Understanding protective behaviors in keeping children safe
BITSS of Protective Behaviours
Good Practice Programs. BITSS of Protective Play - A Skill based workshop for family and child workers.
Reference:
(1) Sanderson, J (2004) Child-Focused Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs. How effective are they in preventing child abuse? Crime and Misconduct Commission, Research and Issues paper Series, No 5. June 2004.
Note from Megan: Many of the tenets of the BITSS model were juxtaposed against the conclusions of the above paper. Specifically, the BITSS model addresses design and conceptual weaknesses along with targeting an all of community approach toward child protection.
Stumble it!
July 24th, 2007 at 9:55 am
I used to be a prosecutor, and specialized in sex crimes, child abuse and domestic violence. In fact, that is the whole reason I went into the legal field–though I have since departed to be a Mom and second grade teacher.
I say this cos I have seen enough of this stuff to last me a lifetime. It just sickens me.
What I liked about this article is it pointed out that most of the sexual abuse is done by someone in the family. And for this reason we cannot epend upon parents to police it. And the only group that can really do this are schools and other child care givers.
All the fears about the bogey man stranger raping the child are over dramatized. The real horror is most of the abuse is a family th ing and the vast majority of it is never discovered or prosecuted.
We should also be honest that 99% of the abuse is by men. all the stuff about hot teachers having sex with their students is a distraction. This is not a real problem.
And despite the disgusting pedophile rapes in the Catholic Chruch (which is my church) it is important to recongize that 95% of the abuse is committed by heterosexual males–who are in a place of trust–usually family.
~Becky
July 24th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Hey there Becky, I was over at your place this morning, laughing uncontrollably at your Bush post. I couldn’t leave a comment because my shoulders were shaking too much due to the laughter. You need to be a comedian.
Thanks for your comment here.
Do you teach Protective behaviours in the class room? In the Australian State where I live, PB is embedded across all key learning areas in the curricula but so many teachers are scared to death of it that they don’t teach it.
Like you, it sickens me that people, yes, mainly family men, sexually abuse our children. It is time for parents to take a stance - do not let someone get to your kids! Teach your kids the protective skills now and for goodness sake, believe the kids if they tell you Uncle Jo or Grandad are touching their privates.
I guess your child Becky, and mine, are lucky because we can talk and teach about this stuff…so many parents can’t though because they are too scared.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Thanks for doing this site. I am an incest survivor and raised my children with the knowledge that no one made available to me as a child. I will definitely send my daughter to your site for the information to pass on to her 4 children.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Patricia you are more than welcome. On behalf of non abusive parents everywhere, I am sorry that you had to experience incest. I am, however, grateful that you taught inherent protection skills to your own children. Your daughter is welcome.
Take care, stay safe and thanks for dropping by.
July 25th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Let’s keep the momentum going! We must keep talking about the “difficult stuff” to keep our children safe.
August 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
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