Teaching Safety Awareness
Accidents account for a high percentage of injuries to children. My own children can not go a single day of playing outside without accidents and injuries, even if it is just a scratch. Early educational experiences that promote safety are the best way to reduce the incidence of accidents and injuries.
In the early elementary school years, safety awareness education begins with identifying potentially dangerous situations in the school environment. Children need to understand the potential risk of physical harm in case of fire and when entering, exiting, or riding in cars and buses and crossing streets. After identifying these risks, students can practice appropriate behaviors and procedures for minimizing physical harm in these situations.
Walking children through fire-drill procedures and practicing bus and pedestrian safety are essential to children’s forming an early conceptualization of personal safety. Among the measures that can be explored are crossing the street at the corner, looking both ways before crossing, riding bikes on the correct side of the road, and wearing bright colors (and reflective gear at night) to be more visible.
As soon as children are cognitively ready, they should be encouraged to discuss and participate in decision-making exercises regarding basic parameters of safe behavior and the reasons for basic rules in a safety-conscious lifestyle. Teachers should take advantage of teachable moments to reinforce positive student behaviors that demonstrate awareness and respect for safety-conscious behavior. For example, when children are running towards an area where cars are moving and remember to stop and look before entering that area, the behavior should be positively rewarded. Teachers on duty when school lets out should be alerted to these behaviors.
As children’s knowledge of safety procedures becomes internalized, teachers should take advantage of opportunities for students to generalize the information and make decisions in other safety situations. Because we cannot teach children what to do in every potentially dangerous situation, the goal is to develop awareness of and sensitivity to risk of physical harm and the ability to make decisions that minimize that risk.
Vehicular and Pedestrian Safety
Once a child enters school the ratio of adult-to-child supervision becomes more disparate. A teacher cannot hold every child's hand when crossing a street or walking to a bus stop. Therefore, children need to learn pedestrian and vehicular safety rules as soon as they begin school. They should learn behaviors that will keep them safe.
Home, School, and Recreational Safety
Safety-conscious behavior is needed in home, school and recreational environments. Safety education in the home begins by creating a safe environment. Focusing on injury prevention by removing dangers from the home is a key element of safety education. As children get older and cognitively capable, they can expand their knowledge of safety awareness and learn first-aid concepts and procedures.
Stranger danger
As they grow, children rapidly expand their contacts with other children and adults. Prior to goint to school, most children have found that adults and older children are trustworthy. They tend to transfer this trust and respect, naturally, without discretion, to other people in their expanding world, which usually includes teachers, participants in community life, and strangers. Children need to be made aware of appropriate behavior with strangers, particularly in situation where they are alone. "Stranger" has to be defined. Teaching children appropriate behaviors in these and similar situations is a component of safety education. In addition to teaching children appropriate verbal responses to strangers, children need to be taught the boundaries for appropriate physical contact with other people.
We must be very attentive, wherever we are in the presence of the children, where they see, where they walk, and guide them through the best path.
Contact with strangers, is a very important issue, from home we must explain, it is not good to accept anything before any stranger, or go when you call, or approach, you should always be next to the representatives, to avoid something bad and harmful to the boy.
There are many dangers, both at home and on the street.