Imaginif

Brush up on Good Touch/Bad Touch

 Article by Megan Bayliss. Corporate Home Page

I have safely returned from doing some Protective Behaviour training in Bamaga, a tiny community at the northern tip of Australia. Fifteen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island family workers attended their second BITSS (Body ownership, Intuition, Touch, Say no, Support network) training. For this second training, they were required to do a presentation on one of the BITSS elements.

The BITSS model is designed to use everyday items, as teachable moments. The teachable moment combined with any household item aims to make the item a protective trigger for our kids - a way for them to remember what to do if anyone is trying to hurt them. Using familiar household items ensures that children are in daily contact with protective triggers. Looking around her house, with her mind in protective gear, one of the participants chose three different brushes as a teachable moment to capatalise upon: a hair brush, a nail brush and a scrubbing brush. Her presentation was designed for children and was on the BITSS element of Touch.

“These three brushes all touch us the same way,” she began. “They touch us by brushing. This one here is a good touch. It feels good when Mummy brushes your hair. Soft, nice. But…if Mummy is cranky and yanks that brush through your hair; BAD touch.”

“This one here is a nail brush. Still a brush but when you brush your hair with this one, it hurts a little because it’s job is to brush finger and toe nails, not hair. Because it feels scratchy on your scalp it tells you; warning, warning - wrong use of brush.”

 “This one is a scrubbing bush. Try to brush hair with this and it hurts big time. Try to brush finger and toe nails and it is too rough. It is a very bad touch.”

 “Big people’s hands can be like these brushes. Hands are for helping - good touch. Hands are for loving but sometimes the loving brush is wrong and makes you feel funny inside - warning touch. Hands can hurt and if someone tried to touch your private parts it is a very bad touch. You don’t scrub your privates with a scrubbing brush and nobody is allowed to touch your private parts either. That is bad touch. If someone is nail brushing or scrub brushing you, your early warning signs deep inside your body tell you it is warning or bad touch. You can go and tell somebody you trust. It is an adult’s job to protect and help children, not to scrub them raw with bad touch.”

 I was impressed with the participants deep understanding of touch and how to use everyday household items to impart protective behaviour learning to children. I asked her permission to share her presentation and she agreed because she hopes that she can play a role in protecting ALL children, not just the children in her community. My sincere gratitude goes to her for sharing a very powerful protective behaviour activity.

So….I’m off to brush up on good touch/bad touch with my son. Now where did I put my scrubbing brush (I can’t remember the last time it was used)?