As preschool and child care continue and a new school year begins, it’s a good time to refresh our memories about safety practices.

Goggles are not common in early childhood programs but they should be. Children love to dress up and goggles add to the “realness” of their science exploration. We use goggles when we make “slime” (The Early Years: Nurturing Young Chemists, 2006). One never knows when a planned activity will be taken in a new direction by a child’s actions. As part of a sensory investigation, I planned for children to try to identify a food item by its scent. Four foods, lemon (fruit), cinnamon sticks (bark), onion (bulb), and coffee beans (seeds), were in small opaque containers covered with squares of cloth so the children could smell but not see them. We used the “wafting” technique of waving the air towards our noses so we didn’t press them up against the cloth and share germs. So far, all was good. When we removed the cloth, children could see and identify the items or confirm their guess. One child looked into the container of cinnamon sticks and then blew into it. Small bits of cinnamon lofted into the air and into his eyes. Like sand grains, the bits were sharp and could have scratched his cornea (but didn’t). From then on we wore goggles during this activity and many others, such as when making playdough, because of the possibility of salt grains scratching children’s corneas.

The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research’s “Eye injury: Tips to protect vision” has many suggestions. A cause for eye injury that I wasn’t aware of is flying rubber bands. Children use rubber bands in all sorts of ways once they are old enough not to chew on them.

Take a look at Ken Roy’s column, “Safety First: Safer Science Explorations for Young Children” in the March 2015 issue of Science and Children, to learn how to prepare for safer science explorations. Then read his blog posts to see how safety practices begun in early childhood are the beginning of what teachers (and children) will need to be aware of in upper grades.  

In “Risky Play and Children’s Safety: Balancing Priorities for Optimal Child Development” published in the International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health [9(9): 3134–3148], the authors discuss whether imposing too many restrictions on children’s outdoor risky play may be hampering their development. They state that “it is timely and important to reflect on our approach towards safety with respect to children’s outdoor risky play opportunities and to consider the impact on healthy child development.” They encourage an approach that “focuses on eliminating hazards, which Wallach (1992) defines as a source of harm that is not obvious to the child, such that the potential for injury is hidden, such as a broken railing; but does not eliminate all risks, which involve a situation that allows the child to recognize and evaluate the challenge and decide on a course of action that is not dangerous, but may still involve an element of risk.”

The Alliance for Childhood organization “promotes policies and practices that support children’s healthy development, love of learning, and joy in living.” Their publication, Adventure: The value of risk in children’s play, by Joan Almon, is an introduction to the topic of adventurous play and risk. It could be a good read for a staff and parent book discussion.

As I watch young neighborhood children running with sticks and crossing the residential street by themselves, I think, “As a teacher I would never allow that to happen, but as a parent I did.” As a parent I was okay with a certain amount of risk because I was the one who would have to take my child to the doctor for any injury. The Center for Disease Control says, “most child injuries can be prevented” and offers suggestions on how injuries can be prevented. One of my neighboring children has an arm cast for a break that happened during tumbling with a slightly older sibling. Another child got these scrapes on his face while playing the Hokey Pokey! We can be aware of hazards but children will still face risks, and learn from these encounters.

In addition to protecting children’s safety, do you protect yourself? How do you protect your eyes when pouring bleach to make the solution for sanitizing tables? Do you wash hands as frequently as we ask children to? What are your safety measures and stories? I’m feeling virtuous because I just got a flu shot! 

Wallach F. 1992. Playground safety: What did we do wrong? Park. Recreat. 1992;27:52–57.