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Injury Prevention for Five- to Eight-Year-Olds: At Home Injury Prevention for Five- to Eight-Year-Olds: On the Playground Injury Prevention for Five- to Eight-Year-Olds: At Play

Children's Health Children's Safety

Injury Prevention for Five- to Eight-Year-Olds: On the Street

Summary & Participants

As children grow out of the toddler years, teaching them to take care of themselves becomes just as important as parental supervision. From riding a bike to crossing the street, your child will be engaging in activities where safety is their responsibility. Join us as we address the main safety issues facing children at this age.

Medically Reviewed On: June 18, 2008

Webcast Transcript

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  Hello, I'm Bonnie Bosewell, and welcome to our Webcast.  Well as children grow out of the toddler years and start spending more time on their own, teaching them take care of themselves becomes just as important as parental supervision.  From riding bikes to crossing the street, your child will be engaging in activities where safety is their responsibility.  Well one of the main safety issues facing children at this age, and what can you do to make sure they're staying safe.

Joining me to discuss injury prevention for five to eight year olds is Dr. Alan Nager.  He is the Director of the Emergency Department at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.  Thank you so much for being with us to talk about this really interesting age because these kids are a little bit more savvy than they've ever been before.  Describe what it's like for them to understand the rules of behavior that will keep them safe.

ALAN NAGER, MD:  Well this is an interesting age because, contrary to children at younger ages, this is the age range in which children are trying to understand the rules.  They learn by examples.  So if you as a parent are good role models for your children and set concrete, good, wholesome examples, your children will follow those.  Also children are gaining independence; they want to go out there and see what's the real world like.  They might try to get away with things.  They may want to try and impress their peers.  So there are a number of issues which make this age group very complicated, and especially trying to instill safety guidelines or rules for them.

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  So they're risk takers at this point.  And what about their judgment at this point?

ALAN NAGER, MD:  Their judgment is really questionable. Kids have difficulty judging and perceiving sounds, distances, sort of those concrete things in our environment which make their world very complicated.  Those perceptions ultimately may make them make bad choices, ultimately causing accidents.

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  Okay, well that becomes particularly important in just their everyday life.  For example, crossing the street.  Let's talk about some of the things that happen to kids just being on the street.  What kinds of things do you find typical that will happen to kids as they're learning these rules in the street?

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