The child does not use a phone or an account. You read this and do each activity with them. Do one a week, or whenever the moment is right.
1. My safe people (10 min)
The child knows who they can tell, and that telling is always welcome.
Draw a hand together. On each finger, write or draw one grown-up the child trusts.
Ask: who would you tell if something worried you? Who else? Let the child choose.
Agree one word the child can say, to you or to any of these people, that means please come and help me.
Say: You will never be in trouble for telling me something that worries you.
2. Medicine or not? (10 min)
The child learns that only a trusted grown-up gives medicine, and that some things only look like sweets or drinks.
Gather a few safe things: an empty medicine box, a sweet wrapper, a drink bottle, a spoon.
Ask the child to sort them: this helps our body when a grown-up we trust gives it, and this is just a sweet or a drink.
Explain: if someone we do not know, or a friend, offers us something to swallow, smoke or drink, we say no and tell a safe person.
Say: Medicine helps us when a doctor, a nurse or a grown-up we trust gives it to us.
3. Say no, then tell (10 min)
The child has practised a short, easy way to say no and to leave.
Choose a pretend situation: a friend holds out a sweet and says, try it, nobody will know.
Practise together: the child says no thank you, I am going to find my grown-up. Take turns being the friend.
Praise the saying, not the acting. Then ask: what would make it easier to say?
Say: Saying no is brave, and telling a grown-up is always right.
4. Big feelings (10 min)
The child has words for feelings and knows that big feelings can be shared, not hidden.
Name some feelings together: happy, cross, scared, lonely, worried. Ask which one visited today.
Ask what helps when a feeling is big: a hug, a walk, telling someone, a prayer if your family prays.
Say that nobody has to carry a big feeling alone.
Say: Whatever you feel, you can tell me, and I will listen first.
Good to know
Do this together, in a calm moment. Stop whenever the child has had enough.
Do not push the child to share. Let them lead, and thank them for whatever they say.
If a child tells you something that worries you, stay calm, thank them for telling you, do not ask leading questions, and speak to a health worker, a school counsellor or child protection services. If a child is in danger now, keep them safe, take them to the nearest clinic or hospital, and call 112 as a backup.
Nothing about your child is stored on ALTDAP. You can tell us an activity was done without any name or age.
Step 4: look back after 30 days
When your weeks are done, a month on is a good moment to look back. We can send one email then, asking how it went. It is optional, and nothing is kept about your child.
