you) are safe.
• Validate children’s feelings and share your own in gentle ways.
• Be your child’s and family’s safe place and calming voice.
• In times of hardship and tragedy focus early and often on the helpers and their courageous response.
According to the dictionary, fear is the unpleasant feeling you have when you think that you’re in danger.
Sometimes we think we’re in danger and we’re right!
Fear can warn us that a situation is unsafe and that something needs to be done, like stepping away from the edge of a slippery cliff, moving away from an angry dog or talking to a safe adult when we’re being harmed by someone else.
When fear warns us of danger, it acts as a protector. This is what fear is meant to do. But it’s not your only protector.
As a young person, you need to know that there are adults around you who take the job of keeping you safe very seriously. Some of these adults know you and some of them don’t, but caring adults do all they can to keep you safe. This doesn’t mean that they never feel afraid or that you won’t still feel afraid at times, but it does mean that when fearful things come, you do not need to battle them alone.
• Name one or two caring adults in your life who know you and do all they can to keep you safe.
• Make a list of the ways in which these caring adults in your life do all they can to keep you safe. (Encourage the young people to think of some specific actions of adults in different contexts, such as home, school, sports teams, police, faith communities and extended family.)
It’s important to remember these caring adults so we know who we can talk to when we feel worried or unsafe.
The term “safe adult” can be hard to define, so here are five descriptive traits to help. (For older children, consider sharing these traits before asking them to name one or two “safe” adults.)
THOUGHTFUL: the person works at listening to you and believes you when you tell them something.
TRUSTWORTHY: the person can be depended upon to guard what you say and is someone you feel comfortable talking to.
RESPECTFUL: the person is mindful and considerate of your feelings and of your boundaries.
HELPFUL: the person provides guidance and helps you find solutions to problems.
CARING: the person does what’s best for you, puts you first and cares about your mental and emotional well-being and physical safety.
(Adapted from kidshelpphone.ca)
Talking to others about our fears can help us to feel less alone. It can also help us gain information or understanding about the thing we are afraid of. Sometimes that information helps us realize that our fear was based in not knowing all the facts, rather than based in true danger. Talking about fears can take courage because we aren’t sure if others will understand or laugh at us, but we might be surprised how many people share the same fears we have.
1. Label a number of containers (e.g., jars, bowls) with the name of a common childhood fear on each.
2. Leave one container blank and tell the children that the container represents fears that aren’t written on the other containers.
3. Pass out 15 to 20 tokens (e.g., Lego pieces, bingo chips, puzzle pieces or buttons) to each child and invite them to join you in distributing their tokens among the containers based on which things they feel fear about and how much fear they feel about each. If one container represents a big fear for them, they can put most of their tokens in that container, or they can choose to divide their tokens between multiple containers.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
