The Five Secrets For Keeping Kids Safe

By: Joyce Jackson

When your child goes out of your home they are in the realm of offline or direct sexual predators. In your neighborhood, at your parks, on your streets and outside the fences of your schools, direct sexual predators are surreptitiously hunting for children. You can choose to spend every second supervising your child between birth and high school. How practical is that? How much does that instill in your child personal responsibility and growth? There is a better way.

These predators are hard to spot because they look like normal individuals. Your child can encounter threatening situations simply by playing in your yard with you in the house. The best way to protect your child is to teach them how to be able to keep themselves safe.

Step one is for your child to be able to know how to deal with strangers and how to deal effectively with them when approached by one. Your child must be able to respond and stay away from developing dangerous situations as well as getting out of one if caught in it. They must also be able to stay calm, focus and apply any number of safety techniques if a situation rapidly gets out of control.

We have Five Secrets for playing outside that you can teach your child. They can use them immediately and be a little safer when you are not around. They apply to any outdoor situation including times, like at the park, when you are close but not directly next to your child.

So, here are The 5 Secrets For Playing Safely Outside.

Secret #1: Teach Your Child To Pay Attention To Things That Seem Out Of Place.

Teach your child to be on the look out for things that occur that are out of the ordinary. Tell them it is "OK" for them to come tell you when they see something different. Say it and mean it. It does not matter what it is, just get them in the bait of telling you about things they see that just don't seem normal to them.

Things out of the ordinary are things like people moving through your neighborhood that are not normally there, cars moving much more slowly up and down your street than usual, vehicles repeatedly driving up and down your street or an unrecognizable ice cream truck appearing out of nowhere one afternoon.

Secret #2: Teach Your Child How To Sit Properly When Playing.

Sitting properly means your child has their back is straight, head high and shoulders straight even when they are looking around or down. Show your child how to sit and play with their legs crossed and back straight. Sitting on their knees or with them bent to the side is also very effective for quick movement as long as their back is straight.

This sitting posture allows your child the ability to spot things out of the ordinary and gives them an advantage if they need to stand up quickly.

Secret #3: Teach Your Child To Get To Their Feet.

Quickly And Tell You About Things That Are Not Normal
In a potential threatening situation a child needs to be able to get up fast and move quickly yet steadily. We teach kids to move fast and we teach them to do it under control. It starts with being able to get up properly off the ground. With good focus skills they can learn to do this easily and will be able to do it with a great deal of calm control.

The way most kids get up opens them up for being blindsided in an attack or abduction. Just watch your kids when they are watching TV. When they get up they usually stick their bum in the air first, put their hands on the ground and point their head down as they push themselves up with their arms. This method affords your child absolutely no protection or ability to see anything or anyone.

Teach them how to stand up so they can keep their heads up and eyes alert and up. This means they stand up without bending over and without placing their hands on the ground. They can do this by raising up to their knees first with head and shoulders straight, then placing a knee out at ninety degrees to their torso and then rotating up using the hips to a full standing position.

The end result is a child upright and alert with head up, shoulders back and ready to move quickly if required.

Secret #4: Teach Your Child To Look People, Especially Adults, Directly In The Eyes.

Teach your child to look at people directly in the eyes, especially adults. Kids need to learn to look adults directly in the eyes. Very few children look adults right in the eyes when they are talking to them. Kids are naturally intimidated by adults because we are bigger and stronger than they are. It is just a natural thing, but you can teach your child to have the confidence to look anyone in the eyes.

Looking someone in the eyes does many things for a child. One, it projects confidence that anyone approaching the child can see. Two, it allows the child some time to assess the intentions of the approaching individual. Three, a small child squarely and confidently looking at an approaching stranger in the eyes, can give the child an extra split second advantage in fleeing a dangerous situation if that stranger is taken by surprise with the intense gaze of that small child.

Secret #5: Teach Your Child To Listen To Their Instincts.

Another tool your child's safety arsenal is teaching them that they have two brains, the one in their head and one in their belly. We call the one in the belly the "Belly Brain." Adults know this as their "gut instinct."

Kids need to learn to listen to their Belly Brain. It is rarely, if ever, wrong. Kids have this gut feeling too, but they need some help in learning how to listen to it and use it to keep themselves safe.

Teach your child that the Belly Brain works for them. Teach them how to listen to it. Help your child to distinguish between their "Head Brain" and their Belly Brain.

In our classes we show the kids how their Head Brain can sometimes trick them. We use imagination and storytelling techniques that enable the children to build up a great, exciting tale about a shadow they saw dance across a wall. It's the same when kids think monsters are in their bedroom closet or under the bed. We show them how their Head Brain makes these stories up.

Reinforce the Belly Brain as the alarm clock for potentially dangerous situations. Teach your child to trust and always listen to it at all times. You can show your kids how to recognize the uneasiness in their stomach without panic, alarm and worry. When kids tune into their Belly Brain they are more tuned in detecting uncomfortable situations, situations with questionable adults and inappropriate behavior.

Kids naturally feel uncomfortable with inappropriate questions and behaviors they are around. We simply show them how to be alert to it with their Belly Brain.




source - www.keywordarticles.org

Joyce Jackson is a child safety expert in northern California. For her extensive website and information see Keeping Kids Safe and a free special report at STOP Predators COLD!