One of my members of staff is doing unit C15
When she came in this morning she showed me her papers and one of the questions was - How do your routines and activities help children become aware of their bodies and how good and bad touching, good and bad secrets are explained for their age group? (2-5)

We talk about our bodies generally if the subject comes up and in topics such as OURSELVES, so they are aware of their bodies. We don't actually discuss good and bad touching. Does anyone - and if you do how do you approach it?

Sue J

Hi Sue -
Hopefully you don't need an answer for tomorrow morning. This is just a holding post really - I think both of our main NVQ contributors are offline at the moment!

I'm sure people will have some responses for you over the next day or so though.

Thanks Steve and no it's not for tomorrow

Sue J

Hi Sue,
When I did my NVQ3, and also when three of my staff members completed it during the last couple of years, none of us went into that sort of detail. We included the "unwanted" aspects of touch in a much wider topic, eg using stories where people are unkind, rough, pull hair, squeeze, pinch, etc. Then we all discussed how we wouldn't like some things, and what we can do about it, for example telling someone we love and trust.
In everyday practice, this comes up quite a lot, for example when a child does something that upsets another. That's when intervention is crucial, using words like "Sally doesn't like that when you push her; it's unkind". That's what I wrote about when I covered this part of the unit. It was in 2000, so I'm not sure if anything has changed and become more specific.
Maybe our current assessors could add their comments

This link will take you to a book which deals with this subject for young children.

Your Body Belongs to You

I also wrote something similar to Helen.

Hi
I am currently doing my NVQ III on child care and have come to a dead end on ideas whilst trying to complete C15.4 'Promote childrens awareness of personal safety and abuse'. My course tutor requires all PC's and ranges covered twice with evidence. My placement is a voluntary position with a reception class at an infant school, so my chances of doing any class based reflective accounts is very slim.

So i was wondering if any out there would be able to share some advice or better still some activities they have used with children of this age group that has covered protection from bullying, unwanted touching, emotional abuse etc and that also will help to cover the PCs of the unit.

Also how can i cover PC2 'the overal policy is explained to parents' with out repeating myself.

Hope you can help

Regards
Annette Norman

Ps this is my first posting and the information I have found on your site regarding other units I have tackled has been very helpful.

Welcome Annette with your first posting.
I have used similar strategies to Helen.
The area of PSE is covered through everyday role modelling, discussions etc of attitudes and behaviour which instill a sense of self worth, self identity, respect of others space, being kind and caring and confidence to stand up for their own rights. These are the ways in which we support children in being able to have a predisposition to handle difficult social and personal situations they may face.
We emphasise the fact that it is ok to say NO to another child if they are doing something they disagree with ( ie: snatching, pushing, hurting etc)
We also encourage children to know it is ok to TELL if another child doesn't listen to their protest (verbal not physical).
We role model the use of the word "Secrets" as something we don't have and to use the word "Surprise" as being good and fun.
We also agreed as a team to use the correct words for genitals ( if required) because we cannot possibly know all the nick names children may use.

You shouldn't need to repeat yourself with regard to " PC2 'the overal policy is explained to parents' " cross reference to any previous relevant work and just explain how, (not what) you would explain your Child Protection Policy to parents. I always explain mine during a home visit and give every parent a copy.

I hope this helps, I am sure some more advice will be added by others and be more relevant to the NVQ & PC's of which I am not very familiar with.


Peggy

Thanks Peggy

Thats has certainly given me some leads and has also confirmed the approach I was going to take

Cheers
Annette