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Trends and Rationale

Children’s health and safety are issues of major concern for the early childhood field. About 3.8 million children experience unintentional injuries each year, and unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for children over age 1. The incidence of health problems such as childhood overweight and childhood asthma has increased in recent years. Children from families with limited financial resources do not have easy access to healthy foods or medical care that is required to maintain a healthy body. One in 7 American children has no health insurance.

Early childhood is the ideal time to begin teaching children about basic health and safety. Children begin to adopt healthy (or unhealthy) behaviors very early. By age five, children can identify behaviors that are unsafe, can distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods, and can identify healthy behaviors. Including health and safety themes as part of the early childhood curriculum can help young children learn the habits that will keep them safer and healthier both in early childhood and later in life.

The Teaching Basic Health and Safety in the Early Childhood Classroom Curriculum

The presentation will introduce a curriculum developed in Georgia to teach basic health and safety messages to 3- to 5-year-old children using five developmentally appropriate, hands-on theme lessons. The lessons are designed to be incorporated into the existing curriculum in child care centers and preschool programs and include activities for most areas of the early childhood curriculum (math, music, art, science, outdoor play, dramatic play, etc.). All activities were pilot-tested with 3- to 5-year-olds. Lesson topics include Basic Safety, Emergencies, Going to the Doctor, My Healthy Body, and Terrific Teeth. The curriculum also includes a variety of family involvement materials, Spanish translations of the lessons and selected family materials, and an extensive listing of other health- and safety-related resources.
The curriculum has been implemented in Georgia using a train-the-trainer model. About 150 trainers have attended full-day training sessions in which they experience hands-on curriculum activities. Trainers share the curriculum with early childhood educators and return evaluation forms describing their training and participants’ reactions to the materials. The Teaching Basic Health and Safety project also includes a set of resource kits that are available for trainers and early childhood educators to borrow. Kits contain most of the non-consumable materials needed for each lesson.

Opportunities for Multi-State Efforts

The Teaching Basic Health and Safety curriculum provides a unique approach to improving childhood health and safety by teaching young children the basic skills to care for their bodies. This project has proven effective in teaching early childhood educators, and has potential for implementation in other states. Multi-state collaboration would also allow for more in-depth evaluation, both of early childhood educators’ use of the lessons and of children’s learning from the activities.