Young children need a safety team of trusted adults they can talk to if they ever feel unsafe or unsure. This safety team should include trusted adults from their family or school but also contain contacts and phone numbers from official and recognised authorities. Parents and carers should also be aware of ‘who’ each contact is on their child’s plan.

This is an activity that needs revisiting on a regular basis because support contacts can change, move away or become no longer available to help. We have a Safety Team hand in our Activity Booklets which children receive after the live show, included in our learning modules, and can also be found in our Parent and Carers Packs (available soon).

It is also a good idea to discuss why they have chosen their adult supporters and a good moment to explore the meaning of trust and who they perceive to be a safe person and how they feel about them.

Yes, copies of the songs are available via our online learning modules. They help young children remember the key messages from the show including Feelings, Warning Signs, It’s My Body, Go and Tell and Ditto’s theme song.

There are many factors to consider when identifying ‘safe’ people but to explain the methodology used in the show, we base this heavily around children’s emotional literacy.

Emotional literacy is all about your feelings, identifying and recognising different kinds of feelings and ‘how’ to manage your feelings. The show presents tools to help young children begin to recognise when they could be in an unsafe or unsure situation and importantly, what to do next to gain help.
Short examples are used to practice recognition of feelings in a safe platform that includes positive and negative emotions, warning signs in the body, and what to do if you feel unsafe and unsure.

The show also presents the Safety Team which is a template for children to nominate their support network of trusted people to talk to when they feel unsafe or unsure. The education team takes time to present this at the end of the Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Show and encourages this activity to take place in the classroom or with parents.

Educating children from a young age to recognise when they feel unsafe or unsure can assist in the process of reporting and gaining the support they need to protect them from harm.

The skills acquired through this program can also be applied to other scenarios that cause children to feel unsafe or unsure (examples include bullying, domestic violence, and respect for privacy). The show also teaches them to be resilient and to keep on trying to seek the assistance they need to be safe.

Bravehearts Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Show – Early Years has been developed as the introduction to personal safety education starting at three years old. Children below the age of three may not be able to retain or fully understand the concepts presented. We recommend the gradual use of stories, posters, and/or songs for much younger children to introduce concepts one at a time.

Bravehearts Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Program does not involve sex education. The Show presents safety strategies that lead children to seek the appropriate assistance if or when they feel unsafe.

The show includes identifying the private parts of the body and body ownership as part of the process but at no point is the word ‘sex’ referred to or ‘sexual intercourse’ explored or explained.

We have several Education Teams located along the Eastern Board of Australia stretching from Cairns down to Tasmania.

For more remote schools and centres, a recorded version of each of the shows including support materials will be available for purchase (estimated for release in mid/late 2023).

Children will be empowered by the tools that are presented to help them recognise the difference between safe and unsafe feelings and what to do to gain assistance.

The following content is stepped through to assist this process:

• Recognition of feelings
• Recognition of warning signs
• Body ownership
• Understanding secrets and that nothing is so yucky you can’t tell someone about it
• Who to tell when you need help

One of the main aims of the show is to encourage young children to develop a Safety Team and to realise it is OK to ask for help when they feel unsafe or unsure.

In addition, the show stresses the importance of Ditto’s Three Rules 1. Everyone has the right to feel safe with people 2. It’s ok to say no if you feel unsafe or unsure 3. Nothing is so yucky that you can’t tell someone about it.