Yesterday we looked at The Protective Behavior Program. Today I’d like to share another, super easy model of Protective Behaviors.
The BITSS you need to remember to help keep your kids safe.
After eight years of research with families and children, I developed an easy to remember model of protective play to use in your home and on a daily basis. Most of the families, children and professionals that I researched with failed to remember either the name of “The Protective Behaviour Program” or the two themes that guide the teaching and rules of protective behavior. This scared me and with the help of people I researched with, I came up with an acronym to help jog people’s memory. I developed the BITSS you need to remember to keep your kids safe. Of course, we just call it the BITSS model, but when I’m training, I keep repeating “the BITSS you need to remember to help keep your kids safe.”
BITSS stands for
Body ownership
Intuition
Touch
Say no
Support network.
Each of the five categories has game and activity ideas that you can use, at home, every day, to help teach your family about protective behaviors. Every day, for the next five days, I will post some games and activities that match up to each BITSS category. BITSS is a bit like a jigsaw. Put the BITSS together for maximum protection. It doesn’t need to be in any order. Just start doing it
Adults forget things when stressed. I can never remember my telephone or Post Office Box number. Stressed children also forget things, quicker than we do. Therefore, it’s important to keep practicing around the five BITSS elements so that they become second nature to your child.
Early educators tell me that it takes 21 days for a child to integrate new information, like spelling words or math rules. If this is correct then surely attending a protective behavior class at school once every six months is just not enough for the child to remember what to do to protect themselves.
A recent (2004) evaluation of Protective Behavior programs (Crime and Misconduct Commission, Australia, June 2004) suggested that the learning from Protective Behavior classes at school was not transferring to home. Children may remember the information while in the school yard but it did not necessarily help them when they were in an at home risky situation.
With this in mind, I urge you to talk about protection from sexual abuse every day at home. You can do it while you’re making sandwiches, reading stories, bathing, washing the dog, playing cards, you get the drift.
The BITSS model makes it easy to do this. It tells you all the important BITSS of Protective Behaviors you need to remember to help keep your kids safe.
Tomorrow we’ll look at Body ownership. For today though, stay safe and imaginif…play kept our kids safe.