Alaska Speech Trooper: Safety Awareness

Safety: it's such a broad topic when it comes to children. Kids seem to have varying degrees of an innate safety awareness built in to their psychological make-up. Even my 3 kids have very different ways of monitoring their own safety; with my middle child being the "accident-prone" of the 3, my oldest is generally pretty cautious, and the youngest is wild and crazy but overall pretty accurate with his maneuvers and activities. All of this to say, no kid is alike in anyway but we can definitely see BIG differences in how each kid self-monitors.

Self-monitoring is a meta-cognitive (and meta-physical) task. In other words, it is dependent on a person self-analyzing and adjusting actions based on previous performance and experience. How do we teach or encourage kids to self-analyze and be more aware of their own safety? The answer is rooted in receptive language. We, as adults, have more experience and therefore can more easily predict what will happen if we carelessly jump on the bed (using this example because it is a common activity for my kids... 😬). Maybe this much seems obvious, but in taking this a step further, how can we encourage kids to predict what COULD happen from their activities so that we aren't just waiting for them to get hurt to "learn their lesson?"

Predicting is a combination of two skills: understanding sequences and understanding cause and effect. In my opinion targeting sequencing is somewhat easier than teaching cause and effect. Kids are introduced to sequences constantly throughout the day: getting ready for the day, washing hands, conversations, bed-time routines, and any other daily patterns. Expand on their receptive language during these tasks by giving them temporal vocabulary (first, then, next, last) during tasks to help them notice the patterns. This may look something like this:

"Okay, it's time to brush out teeth. First we put toothpaste on our toothbrush. Then, brush all of our teeth. Next, we are going to spit into the sink. Last, we rinse our brush and turn the water off."

You can also introduce more complex and novel sequences through books and stories. This also could be a good way to introduce safety concerns (through character experiences) without having them experience them for themselves. As you introduce more stories to your children, they will start to recognize the pattern of beginning-middle-end or maybe even problem-solution-resolution. I know this is an over-preached idea, but almost nothing can top sitting down with your kid(s) and reading a book to them.

Now, back to the problem-solution-resolution thing... let's talk about cause and effect! This is a receptive language task that seems to be more complex and harder for young ones to grasp. It is complex in multiple ways: not every cause is going to have the same effect and it takes time for kids to reach a level of awareness to realize that what they do impacts their environment. We can encourage this development though, so it is not a total waiting game. Activities involving cause and effect for toddlers would be things that have 2 or more steps/elements with the motivating step being the final step or reward. For example, blowing bubbles: you blow into a wand (but that isn't the motivating part) and then a you get these super fun floating bubbles that you can pop! Another good one is a slide at a playground: you climb up the steps and sit down and then you get to take a ride down the slide.

Talking through cause/effect and sequencing early is helpful because now I can ask my 4 year old, "what do you think could happen if you jump on the bed?" or even "why do you think I asked you to not jump on the bed?" She has the foundation or cause and effect and sequencing to problem solve and typically respond with "I might fall off and get hurt."

I am not saying we need to raise a generation of paranoid and overly-cautious kids; I actually want to encourage the opposite. I let my kids take risks and yes, I even let them jump on the bed in a controlled way. But during those activities, I make sure they are checking in with how they feel physically. If a rock shifts under their feet at the beach, I try to respond with a specific cue, "did you feel that rock move and make you wobble? Maybe we need to walk more slowly" to encourage them create those thoughts spontaneously in the future. It's not a perfect system. My kids regularly get bumps and bruises and scrapes and have to learn safety lessons the hard way sometimes, but I am trying to minimize their pain and I feel like any parent would agree that they do the same.