Talking with Your Child About Natural Disasters

Media, school and adult conversations. What do these items have in common? All of these sources are opportunities for your child to hear and/or learn about disasters. The stories your child hears may prompt worry and questions. Are you prepared to handle these concerns and questions? Here are some tips on how you can help your children cope with such emotions.


Maintain your routine. Routines are very important to children. Keeping a regular schedule, especially when the world seems unpredictable, gives your child a sense of reassurance. Comfort lets him know he is safe. Make sure your child gets appropriate sleep, exercise and nutrition.

Avoid too much news media coverage. When a tragic event happens, we can count on the media picking up the story. Keep in mind, media images can be graphic. If your child is watching television, she may have mixed reactions about the things she is seeing. Depending on the age of your child, she may not have the understanding of time and space yet. As a result, she may assume that what she is seeing on the television is close to home. This may cause the fear that a disaster will hit in your neighborhood.

Answer questions. Children are most afraid when they do not understand what is happening around them. Make sure when you are answering your child's questions, you are calm and respond at their developmental level. Your preschooler's thinking is literal and self-centered. Keep your answers simple and on a “need to know” basis. Too much or too many details may only cause him to be more afraid or concerned. Your school-age child can be given a more detailed response. You may sit down with him to explain what happens during an earthquake or a flood.

Get children involved in the effort. If your child feels like she wants to help those in need, let her. Find a local, or even national, organization or charity that is working to help those affected by the tragedy. This will show your child how people around the world are working together to help those in need. Ask your child what she would like to do. There are many things your child can do to be part of the relief efforts.

-Reprinted from Child Care Aware- www.childcareaware.org

Support for children during stressful events

Sudden disasters, such as hurricanes and severe storms, can create anxiety and fear in children. The American Academy of Pediatrics offers online resources to assist child care providers and parents in caring for children during stressful events.

Disaster Preparedness to Meet Children Needs
http://www2.aap.org/disasters/adjustment.cfm

Cherish the Children: Prevent Child Abuse

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15 weeks until Child Care Answers 2nd Annual Cherish the Children Conference- Saturday, April 16, 2011- Don't Miss It!


The Body Safety Program

Terry Hall is a 37-year veteran of the Indianapolis Police Department. He developed the Body Safety program in the early 1980s when he was with the child abuse unit investigating sex crimes. Though he’d won the IPD “Officer of the Year” award for his arrests and convictions, he said he couldn’t hang the award on his wall. He was too devastated by the light sentences the courts gave to the molesters he caught. Children weren’t being believed in the courts and, with sexual abuse, rarely has hard physical evidence.

“I realized apprehension is not working,” Hall said. “You have to go for prevention.” He then began developing the program to prevent abuse and identify abusers. Over the years, he changed the title from “Good Touch, Bad Touch” to “Body Safety” to go with other school programs like “bus safety” and “fire safety.” And, he noted, not all good touch, like from parents and doctors, feels good. He wanted to clarify that in the minds of the students. To develop the program, he talked to teachers and prosecutors. He talked to abuse victims and pedophiles. He interviewed hundreds of convicted molesters over the years. One thing he asked was how they got their victims to stay quiet. “I expected them to tell me, ‘we’ll kill their parents; we’ll kill their dogs, we’ll do this, that,;” Hall said. “They don’t even threaten kids. They said, ‘We don’t tell kids not to tell about child molesting. You do.’” The revelation hit him like lightning. That’s why Hall believes it’s imperative for parents and adults to talk frankly to kids about their private areas and not be embarrassed or ashamed. “If you can’t teach kids to say the terms without embarrassment, how can you ever get them to admit their uncle touched them there?” he said.

“I know of no other programs in the United States that actually teach children: these are your private parts and give them the correct names of the body. We’ve got one name for the thumb, one name for the elbow and 5,000 names for the private parts of the body,” he said. “So if we can’t discuss them in open forum or in hygiene issues and medical issues, how could we ever tell the most embarrassing thing: being sexually assaulted?” That’s wheat sets Hall’s program apart. He doesn’t mince words. He presents the terms factually and tastefully in ways students will understand. He said some folks tell him their community couldn’t handle the candor. With his fully booked schedule years ahead, “Somebody’s community’s handling it,” he says.

His program is presented in half hour segments. It’s broken into grade divisions: generally kindergarten through second grade, then grades 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12. “So where I’ll be talking ‘good touches and bad touches’ under third grade, third grade and over we’re talking child molest,” he said. For junior high and high school students, he adds the issue of date rape. In high school, he also gives students signals to watch for in their younger siblings. “A young kid will tell their big brother in high school about child molest before they tell their mom and dad,” he said. Before he speaks to any students, he holds a session for teachers and parents the night before. He goes over the material he will be presenting to the students and makes sure support will be there for kids who disclose abuse. “What’s worse than a child being molested,” he said, “is a child telling someone and not being believed.”

In the 23 years he’s presented the program to schools, Hall estimates 1,500-2,000 students have come forward either for themselves or a friend. Never have fewer than three students disclosed abuse. At one school, there were 80. Wherever he speaks, social services, school counselors, plain clothes officers from the local area and sometimes state police departments are all there as a safety new for the kids. Hall doesn’t actively promote the program to schools or communities. He lets those who’ve already brought him to their communities do that. “If I’ve got to come in and convince somebody that something like this is needed,” he said, “I’m really working up hill from the start.” But he said child molestation is happening in every county, every community, whether folks there want to admit it or not. And every community must address it. “If you don’t have an active program, you’re saying one of two things: it doesn’t occur, or we don’t care,” he said. “And I don’t like either one of those.” He said the program not only exposes molesters already in communities, but can keep some of the hardcore predators away. “If he knows that every year, every school-aged child in the city is going to be asked – ‘has anyone ever given you a bad touch for no good reason:’ – is he going to apply his trade there? Why would he do that when he can go 15 miles east or 15 miles west and find a school system that doesn’t have any program?” he said.

It takes a partnership from everyone within the community – partnerships among parents and schools and prevention groups and businesses and law enforcement. Child molestation is like a cancer on the victims and on our communities. In any fight against cancer, awareness and prevention is the key. For child sexual abuse, that begins with open communication. For adults it means candidly talking to our kids, empowering them to protect their bodies, listening to them and supporting them.

Terry Hall can be contacted to do Body Safety Programs: Cell: 317.607.5306 or email: thall26@comcast.net

Taken from Sgt. Terry Hall’s Public Agency Training Council information: Lifting the Shadows by Richard Biever

Operation Kid Sight

The local Indiana Lions Clubs in our communities, in conjunction with the Indiana Eye and Tissue Transplant Bank, Inc. and the Indiana University Department of Ophthalmology offer FREE eye screenings for preschool children. The screening provides instant readings of the child’s eyes to determine the presence of possible eye disorders. No physical contact is made with the child and no eye drops or medications are used. The screening is approximately 85-90% effective in detecting significant factors that can cause a decrease in vision.

What kind of screening?
The Lions use the PediaVision screening device to identify children who may be at risk, and if left untreated, may lead to a lifetime of vision problems or even loss of vision. The PediaVision can detect near sightedness, far sightedness, astigmatism, and other amblyopia (dull vision) factors.

Why is it important to do preschool vision screenings?
The eye muscles that control the eye, optic nerve, and the area of the brain that gives us vision are completely developed by the age of six, no matter how perfectly or imperfectly. Vision deficiencies that may have occurred during development will be very difficult or impossible to treat after the age of 6, when the development has completed. Many of these problems when caught early, can be completely corrected, and the earlier they are diagnosed the better the chance of the correction, as well as the less expense in treatment.

Did you know?
More than 60% of children in the United States have not been examined by an optometrist or ophthalmologist by age 6. Most people think that when they take their child/children to the pediatrician that the pediatrician will discover vision conditions. Most pediatricians have only had a small amount of training related to the eyes, so vision problems are more likely detected and addressed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Children do not know that they have a vision condition. You know when you need to go to the eye doctor because you have had previous experience at seeing well. You can tell the eye doctor when what he/she is doing is helping your vision. The young child doesn’t know how well they should be able to see. Most young children under the age of 5 are not capable of communicating effectively to solve the problem, or to even tell you that there is a problem.


Who can be screened?
Operation Kid Sight volunteers only screen children ages 1-5 years of age. The child has to be able to fixate (look at a specific object) which requires them to be at least one year of age. If they are older then 72 months, they may be more effectively screened by other methods.

How the screenings work:
The vision screenings can be conducted in several different ways. Typically the volunteers will set up screenings with child care providers (centers and homes.) They can also set up a community screening. Before any screening is done, each child must have consent from parents.
The screenings are conducted with a reading (a picture taken) of the child’s eyes while the child looks at the PediVision. If further examination is warranted, the parents are advised by mail or phone to refer to an eye doctor of their choice. All children/families will receive a follow after the screening from PediaVision.
(No doctor recommendations are made, just a referral.) The screening is neither a diagnosis nor an examination. It is simply a reading of the child’s eyes.


FREE?
The cost of the screening is paid in full by the Lions using funds raised by Lions in fundraising projects.

If parents or child care providers are interested in getting a screening scheduled, they can contact a local Lions Club. You may also contact Janice Chapman- State Program Coordinator of Operation Kidsight at 317-578-0491 or kidsight@sbcglobal.net.