Indicator: Safety and Health (SH)

Children show an emerging awareness and practice of safe and healthy behavior

Children develop awareness of and begin to practice safe and healthy behaviors as they learn about the world and experience adults modeling a healthy lifestyle. These experiences are influenced by a variety of factors, including familial and sociocultural patterns and expectations. Developing safe and healthy attitudes and behaviors provides a rich context for the development of self-help, adaptive, motor, cognitive, and social skills. Safe and healthy behaviors that young children develop—such as those related to good nutrition, hygiene, injury prevention and safety, physical fitness and activity, and other components of a healthy life—serve as a foundation for lifelong habits that might help prevent later health complications. Learning about safety or a safe environment also allows young children to develop habits and learn to make choices that minimize their risk of injury and illness.

Health, nutrition, and safety are interconnected, much as social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and motor development is interrelated. Young children gradually develop an understanding and practice of personal care routines (toileting and hygiene, dressing, and self-feeding), personal safety behavior, and healthy eating. In addition, as children develop motor and cognitive skills, they are better able to practice safe and healthy behavior with increased competence and independence.

The development of safe and healthy behavior begins when infants react to internal sensations—such as hunger, pain, or fear—and adults respond to their needs. With time, infants become familiar with care-giving routines. They participate in and anticipate the behavior of familiar caregivers.

Toddlers demonstrate increasing independence in routines related to their safety and health by beginning to participate in these routines with prompting from adults or cues from the environment. For example, when the teacher says it is time to go outside, the child goes to his cubby to get his coat.

Young preschoolers can remember and perform safety and health routines increasingly on their own. For example, a young preschooler may put her hands under running water, rub, and rinse her hands when a teacher reminds her that it is time to wash hands.

Older preschoolers can often complete routines without help and are beginning to understand the purpose of the routines. This understanding is an internalization of the rules and conventions associated with the routine. Children may indicate this understanding by communicating the purpose of the routine to others (such as saying, “Throwing sand is not allowed” to a playmate) or generalizing a rule to a novel context. For example, a child who learns to wash her hands after using the bathroom at school may also begin to do this without being reminded at home.