How to Teach Kids Body Safety from an Early Age with Holly-ann Martin, Safe4Kids

Media Savvy Moms

Child sexual abuse. It’s a serious topic with no easy answers. It can hurt just thinking about it—no matter whose child it affects. So what are we to do? Do we close our eyes, try to think of happier thoughts, and wish for it to all go away? No! We do what we can do. We control what we can control. We teach children about body safety. We give them the best protective information we can.

No one knows how to do this better than Holly-ann Martin. She, with the help of her husband Roger, founded Safe4Kids, a Western Australia organization devoted to Abuse Prevention Training. Simply, they saw a need and went to work. With a background in education, Holly-ann has developed a host of incredible resources (see links below). Each is designed to help parents and teachers empower children with the necessary life skills to not only help protect from unwanted sexual touch (including exposure to pornography), but also teach children how to build and nurture respectful relationships.

If there’s one underlying message that we want you to get from this episode, it’s that you can do this! Talking to children about body safety can be comfortable, easy, and even fun! In fact, kids learn best when they’re having fun. As their parent, you’re the best person to take the lead on this. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. Holly-ann is here to guide you though. In this episode we discuss:

• What is the best age to start protective conversations
• Why kids need us to help them express themselves
• 3 fun and practical ways to teach body safety

And did we mention? … she's been teaching and updating her curriculum for over 35 years!! So ya, she knows a thing or two!

More about today’s guest

Holly-ann Martin is the founder and Managing Director of Safe4Kids, a company specialising in child abuse prevention education. Through Safe4Kids, Holly-ann develops and distributes child protection education resources to parents, teachers and educators, and facilitates child protection education and training in Australia and overseas. With a background as a Teacher’s Assistant, Holly-ann is also a children’s author and public speaker. Holly-ann advocates for a holistic, community-based approach to child abuse prevention, educating the people in a child’s network about how to teach kids about body safety, empower them with knowledge, and ultimately keep them safe.

Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.