These Videos Help Parents Educate Preschoolers on Sex Education
Can a boy and a girl be put in the bathtub together? What if your child’s preschool classmate comes on a play date and you find that they are both “playing doctor” below the belt? What if your child asks to see your private parts and it makes you feel strange?
There are many books and resources to talk to children about their bodies, sexuality, and reproduction. But usually they are aimed at parents whose children are about to reach puberty – and that is already too late. Sexual health educator Deborah Roffman tells me that kids have a “normal, natural curiosity” about these topics from the age of four, and if adults aren’t around to guide them, they’ll end up reaching out to peers, older children. and the media. get their information. (You can’t just wait for the school to clear things up – on one Reddit thread, people shared very inaccurate information that they were taught in sex lessons, for example, how condoms increase the risk of pregnancy, a girl cannot get pregnant while upstairs, and the clitoris is a myth. )
The discussion should not be just a tense sit-down conversation – on the contrary, it should be an ongoing discussion that starts earlier than you probably think. That’s why Roffman, author of ” Please talk to me: everything you need to know to become a loved one in bed for their children” , helped develop a series of animated videos for parents of children ages 4 to 9 years. They produced the project AMAZE , dedicated to sexual education , in which we got the video for tweens and teens on topics such as consent , gender identity and sexual violence.
Dubbed the AMAZE Parent Playlist , this series helps parents navigate real-world, sometimes confusing, scenarios with their little ones. Let’s say you’re listening to NPR in your car and your child suddenly asks, “Mommy, what’s the rape?” (You can say something like “Rape is a violation of the law,” the video says, which is an absolutely true answer.) Or maybe you go to a toy store and there are “girls” and “girls” aisles. boys “. … “(Take this opportunity to help children pay attention to and think about gender labels.) This video is” Is it good to play doctor? ” – explains what is normal and healthy when it comes to children’s curiosity about the body and private areas.
Roffman says that many parents have irrational fears that “too much information too early” could harm young children in some way, but the opposite is actually true. Better educated children are more likely to make better decisions about everything, including sexuality, she said.