Teaching Children to Stay Safe from Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation or Abduction: Tips and Educational Conference Information for Parents, Grandparents, Teachers, and Other Child Caregivers

 

 

I want to share with my readers some very helpful information and resources about the role of adults in teaching children to take a pro-active role in staying safe and becoming street-smart kids. Street-smart kids know when and around whom they need to exercise caution. They know the safest actions to take in the face of potentially threatening situations, and they are wise to the common predator lures. Street-smart kids also know that they should always tell a trusted adult anytime anything scary or bad happens to them.

It does, indeed, take a village to raise a child. That is why I want to share with my readers two important educational conferences that parents, grandparents, teachers, child caregivers, and any adults concerned about the safety of children can attend in order to learn how to raise and educate street-smart kids. These are conferences in which I will be presenting such vital information to registrants. I also want to share with my readers a sneak peek / tips from the parent and teacher chapter of my award-winning book, What Would You Do? A Kid’s Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers.

Conference Information:

Headline Books is offering an educational conference  (“Festival of Writers” ) at the Holiday Inn Express on Civic Center Drive in Charleston, WV. The conference will be held on Friday, October 12th, with the WV Book Festival to follow in the Charleston Civic Center on Saturday, October 13th and Sunday, October 14th. Some Headline books authors, myself included, will be presenting workshops on October 12th at this educational conference and will be in attendance at the WV Book Festival on October 13 - 14th. Please read more information about and register for the Headline Books Conference.

 

 

The West Virginia Reading Association Conference at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV: I will be a presenter at the WVRA Conference being held on November 15 – 16, 2012. I will be presenting to the conference, on November 15, 2012, a session called, The Role of Educators in Protecting Children from Abuse, Abduction, or Predator Harm: A Teaching Unit.

To attend my session at the conference, please read more information about and register for the WVRA Conference.

 

 

A sneak peek / tip from the parent and teacher chapter of What Would You Do? A Kid’s Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers:

“Parenting in these increasingly complex and troubled times is challenging to say the least.  Recent headlines of child abductions and of children who have been the victims of sexual predators heighten parental concern and make the challenge an even more difficult one.  How can you, as a parent, protect your children from such harm without making them afraid and distrustful of people in general?  It is a difficult balance, but it can be done. 

The key is to teach your children, in a non-threatening way, to exercise caution, to be empowered, and to trust their instincts.  You must start by retiring the phrase, stranger danger.  Such an expression can make your children think that all strangers are dangerous and bad.  That is a misconception, of course.  It is necessary, however, that you help children determine whom they can trust.  The best way to do that is to teach your children to think of categories of people.”

(The above is excerpted from chapter 5 of the book. The category system is explained in detail in chapter 5 of the book.) 

 

( Below is the second excerpt from chapter 5, the parent / teacher chapter. Detailed information about the safety measures referenced that child caregivers can take to better protect children are itemized in chapter 5.)

“This guidebook teaches children to take a proactive role in staying safe by having them brainstorm solutions to possibly threatening situations.  Such a solve-it-yourself strategy can make children feel more in control of frightening topics they hear addressed in the nightly news.   The precautions, safety strategies, and self defense techniques taught in the handbook are measures that are encouraged by law enforcement officials and networks of organizations dedicated to child safety, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and other child safety resources. 

Parental rules for children can be varied from one family to the next.  So be sure to review and discuss with your children the strategies suggested in the guidebook and appropriately adapt them to your own circumstance and age of children.

Empowering children is just one step though.  There are safety measures that parents, grandparents and caretakers can employ to better ensure that their children stay safe.”

• For more information about my award-winning book and to access useful educational resources for children and child caregivers, please visit my book website, Melissa HarkerRidenour Books.