Social safety for young children: A review of the literature on safety skills instruction

Young children in today's society may find themselves in situations that re quire appropriate action in order to avoid dire consequences, such as injur y of death. These situations may be the result of contact with objects in t he physical environment action in order to avoid dire consequences, such as injury or death. such as guns, knives, or toxins. In other cases, children may be faced with confronting dangers in the social environment, such as a voiding the lures of strangers or responding to the abuse or neglect of a c aregiver. Although safety education programs are implemented frequently in school settings, few research studies have systematically evaluated the met hodology for teaching safety skills to young children. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the empirical literature related to socia l safety skills instruction for young children with and without disabilitie s. Findings are classified into two groups: lures of strangers and sexual a buse. Implications for future research are discussed.