Seeing To Children’s Safety Workshop

Organized by the Association des parents de Mont-Royal (APMR), several local parents showed up at an interactive conference on how to better ensure their children’s safety. It was animated by Stéphanny Royer, a prevention officer with the Réseau Retour Enfants (RRE), a non-profit group founded in 1985 that is part of Missing Children’s Network Canada.

“I’m not promising the moon. There’s no one key to ensure children’s safety,” said Royer, an animator and sociological researcher who works with young children in schools, daycare centres, and day camps. “You will see quite logical things discussed.”

Some parents hesitate to talk with their children about personal safety because they don’t want to frighten him or decrease his spontaneity. However, the RRE stresses that giving your child the knowledge and practical skills to look after himself is as important as learning how to read and write.

The best start to do that, Royer said, is to help develop their self-esteem. “A child who has low self-esteem is more vulnerable. They don’t feel confident in their own judgement.”

This can be done by rewarding them for good behaviour or achievements and helping them understand when it’s not adequate. “The solution is to find another behaviour. It’s not me that must change.” It’s also important not to resolve problems for children, but to help them be more autonomous to resolve them for themselves, she added.

In a practical sense, parents are encouraged to help their child with a daily, five-minute security exercise on what to do in a particular setting or situation. With this role-playing, it’s much better that they’re mistaken first with the parent, she said, than with a stranger who may lure them with candy or a video game or ask them to find their lost dog or cat.

Children should be taught to ask themselves three questions to help make safe decision: Do I have a good feeling?; Will my parents know where I am?; and With whom can I ask for help if I’m lost? If the answer is “no” to any one of these questions, they must say “no” and don’t do something or go with somebody.

“You must reinforce the messages to your child that he has the right to say “no” and to cry for help if necessary.”