Center for Hope Resources

Teach and model characteristics of healthy relationships to your child including empathy, expressed feelings, equality, fairness, respect and boundaries. It is important to know that most abuse is in the hands of someone who has gained the trust of a victim and their family.

• Encourage Questions: Good communication ensures that when something is difficult, the parent or caregiver is there to help. If your child tells you they feel uncomfortable with an adult, listen.
• Listen: Encourage your child to come to you and other helpful, healthy adults with questions about bodies and touch. Review your family’s values and rules for both at home and when you are not around. A child must be empowered to listen to their instincts.
• Teach Empathy: Empathy plays a major role in a child’s future happiness and success. Empathy promotes kindness, prosocial behaviors and moral courage. It is effective against bullying, aggression, prejudice and racism. This allows children to imagine others’ boundaries and begin to understand how to respect those boundaries.
• Be Friendly, Not Friends: Adults who work with your child should have training and be competent and appropriate to their level of responsibility.
• Trust Your Instincts: You know your family and child better than anyone and if something does not feel right, then it is not right.
• Teach about Healthy Sexuality: Teach your child to recognize appropriate behavior and to avoid exploitive or inappropriate behavior towards others. Respect your child’s decision to protect their body and space. Remember, an offender will slowly try to groom a child and their parents and caregivers through more “normal” touches.
• Help Your Child Understand their Boundaries: Teach children to understand physical, emotional and behavioral boundaries. Adults must establish and respect appropriate boundaries with a child.
• Watch for “Red Flags” with Other Adults and Your Child: Trust your instincts and remove your child from a situation if you feel uncomfortable. Be aware of red flags such as an adult treating your child as a peer, using inappropriate language or inappropriate touch, allowing or encouraging illegal activities, treating your child as a favorite, or looking for time alone with your child.
• Empower Your Child: Empower your child as a partner in the prevention process. Encourage them to adopt healthy strategies to protect themselves, such as checking with a caregiver/adult before doing activities, going places with friends instead of alone and identifying trusted adults.
• Keep the Rule of Three: Make sure that all of your child’s interactions with others are observable, interruptible and appropriate. Offenders operate by access, privacy and control. If your child must be alone with an adult for lessons or sports or babysitting, check in occasionally or show up at an unexpected time, just to be sure everything is okay.
• Tell Your Child that Secrets are Not Okay: Tell your child that there are no secrets kept in your family, and no one should ever ask them to keep a secret. Talk about surprises instead – how we surprise people with gifts and presents on their birthday or planning a party. The difference is that surprises are always shared with others and secrets are not.
• Inquire about Verbal Interactions: Ask your child about conversations they have with other adults. Adults should never participate in the use of inappropriate names, belittling comments or sexual innuendos.
• Talk about Body Safety: Teaching your child the proper names for their private body parts will help them communicate with you if they should ever have a question related to illness, hygiene or abuse.
• Talk and Talk and Talk Some More: Create an environment in your home where your child feels comfortable sharing information and asking tough questions without being judged. Be accessible, and non-judgmental. Maintain ongoing communication and dialogue about safety issues.
• Laugh with Your Child: Laugh! Our days are filled with stress, obligations, work and school. Even though you are physically present with your child, you may be disconnected. Laughter, play and joy are essential to connect with your child.
• Encourage Your Child: Encourage your child to tell you or a trusted adult when they see inappropriate or harmful interactions between an adult and child.
• Model Respect: As the saying goes, we have to give respect to earn respect. We cannot teach respect to a child by being disrespectful to them.
• Tell the Truth: Have open and honest conversations with your child. Speak to your child in a developmentally appropriate way and in a manner that suits their skill level. Their concerns should be addressed honestly and directly.
• Report: It is imperative that all incidents of inappropriate behavior of an adult with a child be reported to the appropriate person and/or civil authorities. Not all inappropriate incidents are abuse but reporting to a supervisor, if possible, can let the person know they are being monitored. If child abuse is suspected, it must be reported to the appropriate civil authorities immediately as required by Maryland law, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred.