Target population

Children aged 5 and 6 years, in pre-schools in Singapore.

Delivery organisation

Singapore Children’s Society.

Mode and context of delivery

This programme is delivered in pre-school centres to classes of children aged 5 and 6 years. The two part programme (consisting of two sessions of 45 minutes each) is typically delivered by facilitators from Children’s Society to a class of no more than 25 pre-school children at a time. A booklet (which can be accessed via the link in the ‘references’ section) providing a summary of KidzLive is given to each child to take home after the programme. This booklet contains tips and information on child sexual abuse prevention and on how caregivers can help reinforce the messages that children learnt during the programme.

Level/Nature of staff expertise required

This programme is conducted by staff members from the Advocacy and Research Department. Volunteers are also recruited to assist in the programme delivery. Potential volunteers need to attend a training session to understand the context of child sexual abuse as well as the four components of KidzLive and how to deliver the programme. They would also need to observe two or three runs of KidzLive, before delivering the programme themselves.

Intensity/extent of engagement with target group(s)

This programme involves elements such as storytelling and songs, so that the message of sexual abuse prevention is relayed in a manner that is interactive, engaging and accessible to children. This programme is presented in English.

Description of intervention

The key objectives of the programme are to teach children:

• the proper names of their private body parts
• that no one should see or touch their private body parts, and they also cannot touch others’ private body parts
• to respect and protect their bodies
• to identify the context of touches
• to recognise good and bad touches, as well as right and wrong actions
• to say ‘no’, walk out, and tell a trusted adult if sexual abuse happens

Programme content:

Story – ‘When It Doesn’t Feel Right’

This story provides an overview of the programme. It depicts a scenario of a boy who was touched inappropriately by an Uncle whom he was close to. A wise owl teaches him about good and bad touches and never to keep a bad secret.

My Body

In this segment, children learn to respect and protect their bodies. Through the use of cloth dollies, they will be taught the proper names for the private body parts of boys and girls. They will also learn that no one should touch and see their private body parts; neither should they touch nor see others people's private body parts.

N.O.T Rules

This component teaches children the three simple steps to take should they have a bad touch. Children will learn the protective skills of “Say No, Walk Out and Tell a Trusted Adult”. They will also pick up the ‘NOT’ song to better help them remember these steps.

Good and Bad Touches

Using a series of pictures, children will be taught to identify the context of good and bad touches, as well as right and wrong actions. They will also rehearse telling a trusted adult about a bad touch or action.

Besides direct delivery of the KidzLive programme to pre-school children, Children’s Society also conducts teachers’ training and parents’ talks, to equip the children’s caregivers with the ability to impart body safety messages. Please email us for more details.

Evaluation

A programme evaluation was conducted in 2015 to assess if the KidzLive programme is effective in helping children learn body safety messages. The evaluation, which involved a series of pre and post-tests carried out on 250 children from 47 different pre-school centres, showed that there was a significant improvement in the children’s knowledge of sexual abuse prevention after attending the KidzLive programme.

Note: Scoring was done on a scale, and the maximum score was 13. There was overall significant improvement in the children’s mean total scores from pre-test (M= 6.30, SD= 2.39) to post-test (M= 11.5, SD= 2.15), t(249)= -33.6, p< .001 (two-tailed). The mean increase in scores was 5.22, with a large effect size (η2 = .819).

References

https://www.childrensociety.org.sg/resources/ck/files/KidzliveBooklet.pdf

Contact details

info@childrensociety.org.sg

https://www.childrensociety.org.sg/

 

RATING: Pioneering

Information correct at January 2020