The
following is an excerpt from Safety First: Preventing & Managing
Childhood Injuries.
How Do Injuries Affect Us?: [A Learning Activity]
Purpose
For This Activity You Will Need
Trainer Preparation Note
Points to Consider
Purpose: This activity helps raise staff
awareness of childhood injuries-how common they are, their
causes, and their impact.
For this activity you will need:
- Flip chart paper and markers
- Paper and pens or pencils
Trainer Preparation Note:
Before beginning this activity, copy the questions in Step
3 onto a sheet of flip chart paper.
Step
1: Explain to participants that this activity will help them
to reflect on their own childhood experiences with injury.
Step
2: Tell participants: Think back to your own childhood
and remember a time when you were injured,
either a minor or a severe injury. As this activity will
involve discussing your injury with other workshop participants,
identify an injury that you feel comfortable talking about.
Step
3: Have participants pair-up with the person sitting next
to them. Ask them to tell each
other the story of their injury, and discuss the following
questions:
- What caused the injury?
- What was the impact, physically and
emotionally, on you and others?
- How could the injury have been prevented?
- What did the adults do well in response
to the injury? What could they have done better?
Allow 5 to 10 minutes
for discussion.
Step 4: Return to the larger group.
Ask participants: What did you learn from discussing your
childhood injury?
Points to Consider:
- Childhood injuries are very common-we all
have had them. We can all learn by reflecting on and sharing our
experiences.
- Childhood injuries are related to child
development. As adults our role is to help children handle
developmental challenges within an environment that is as safe as
possible.
- Injuries can have both physical and
emotional consequences; both immediate and long-term. Although
injuries usually cause pain and suffering, there can be positive
learning outcomes from the experience. The emotional impact of
injuries on children often depends upon how effectively adults
respond to the injury.
- After an injury, it is important
to consider how it could have been prevented and take
action to prevent
similar
injuries in the future. It is also important
for adults to work through
their sense of guilt over an incident.
- Head
Start staff should be aware of cultural differences
in addressing accidents and injuries.
