Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade
About This Program
Target Population: Students in 3rd through 5th grade
For children/adolescents ages: 8 – 11
Program Overview
Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade is a child abuse prevention program designed to be presented to one classroom at a time. There are separate curricula for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.
Note: Play it Safe! has grade-level curriculum for Pre-K through 2nd grade students and 6th grade through high school students, but the CEBC has not reviewed and rated the curriculum for those grades.
Program Goals
The goals of Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade are:
- Learn the 3 types of touches
- Learn what to do if you are being touched in an unsafe or confusing way even with someone you know
- Learn about safe secrets to keep and unsafe secrets
- Learn how to use the three-part safety rule
- Learn that you should keep telling a trusted adult until someone believes you
- Learn that it is never too late to tell
- Learn how to use the three-part safety rule with Internet safety, social media engagement, bullying situations, or when someone is taking advantage of you
Logic Model
The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade.
Essential Components
The essential components of Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade include:
- Consists of 3 age-appropriate scripts and videos (3rd, 4th, & 5th grade)
- Each grade level’s interactive curriculum is designed:
- To speak to children in a way that they can best learn and respond
- In a simple-to-present format with everything included
- To be easily be taught by any educator or counselor
- To be taught in one hour or less
- Developed to teach children how to reduce their risk of sexual and physical abuse and sexual assault
- Designed to help students:
- Recognize potentially abusive behavior
- Use tools to respond to threatening situations
- Concepts that are reinforced in age-appropriate language and videos are:
- Most people would never touch a child in an unsafe or confusing way
- There are three types of touch
- Use the 3-part safety rule (see below for more info)
- It is never too late to tell
- Child abuse is never the child’s fault
- The 3-part safety rule:
- Consists of:
- Say NO
- Get away when you can
- Tell a trusted adult
- Can be applied to many situations that students may encounter on a daily basis, such as:
- Bullying
- Online situations
- Peer pressure
- Exploitation by friends/family
- Encourages assertive responses whether used with strangers or someone the child knows and loves
- Each grade level script includes:
- An overall summary of the curriculum
- General information on child abuse
- What to do if a child discloses abuse
- Frequently asked questions by parents or administrators
- How to prepare for the presentation
Program Delivery
Child/Adolescent Services
Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:
- All children in grades 3rd-5th who may not understand abusive situations and be at risk of these situations occurring to them
Recommended Intensity:
One classroom at a time, one time a year
Recommended Duration:
One hour or less
Delivery Setting
This program is typically conducted in a(n):
- School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)
Homework
This program does not include a homework component.
Languages
Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade has materials available in a language other than English:
Spanish
For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).
Resources Needed to Run Program
The typical resources for implementing the program are:
Computer access is needed to present Play it Safe!® to either stream the videos or plug in a USB flash drive for the videos.
Manuals and Training
Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications
Experience in a classroom setting working with children.
Manual Information
There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.
Program Manual(s)
Each grade level program comes with a presentation script. These are available for purchase at https://www.playitsafe.org/store_gradelevels.php?filter=elementary
Training Information
There is not training available for this program.
Implementation Information
Pre-Implementation Materials
There are no pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade.
Formal Support for Implementation
There is no formal support available for implementation of Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade.
Fidelity Measures
There are no fidelity measures for Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade.
Implementation Guides or Manuals
There are implementation guides or manuals for Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade as listed below:
Each grade level presentation script comes with:
- General information on child abuse
- How to respond to a child who discloses abuse to the presenter
- How to prepare to present the program
- General questions that a parent or administrator might have about the program with the answers
Implementation Cost
There are no studies of the costs of Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade.
Research on How to Implement the Program
Research has not been conducted on how to implement Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade.
Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research
Child Welfare Outcome: Safety
Thompson, E. L., Zhou, Z., Garg, A., Rohr, D., Ajoku, B., & Spence, E. E. (2022). Evaluation of a school-based child physical and sexual abuse prevention program. Health Education & Behavior, 49(4), 584–592. https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981209882
Type of Study:
Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants:
539
Population:
- Age — Not Specified. Participants were in Grades 3–5
- Race/Ethnicity — Intervention Group: 82% Hispanic; Control Group: 75% Hispanic
- Gender — Intervention Group: 51% Female; Control Group: 58% Female
- Status — Participants were students in Grades 3–5.
Location/Institution: Tarrant and Johnson Counties in Texas, USA
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the Play it Safe! Program [now called Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program – 3rd-5th Grade] among elementary school students using a cluster randomized design. Participants were students at six elementary schools in Texas who were matched on demographic characteristics, and then randomized to the Play it Safe! program or a waitlist control. Measures utilized include a scale assessing vignette-based knowledge of physical and sexual abuse prevention. Results indicate that the Play it Safe! group had a greater increase in the knowledge score over time, compared to the control group. Moderating effect of grade was also observed as the Play it Safe! intervention tended to have less effect for fifth grade compared with third grade. Limitations include changes to the study design, size and follow-up length due to COVID-19 school closures; issues with the measurement of race/ethnicity among elementary school children; the use of vignette-based knowledge of child physical and sexual abuse prevention, as opposed to directly measuring disclosure of abuse or the child’s ability to use the strategy that was learned or psychosocial measures (e.g., attitudes, norms); and the victim-focused prevention approach to violence prevention, rather than focusing on prevention among perpetrators.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 month.
Blakey, J. M., & Thigpen, J. W. (2015). Play it Safe!®: A school-based childhood physical and sexual abuse prevention program. Journal of Adolescent and Family Health, 7(1), Article 5. https://scholar.utc.edu/jafh/vol7/iss1/5
Type of Study:
One-group pretest–posttest study
Number of Participants:
913
Population:
- Age — Not Specified. Participants were in grades Kindergarten through 5th
- Race/Ethnicity — 57% Hispanic, 32% African American, 10% Others (i.e., Caucasian, Native American, and Asian American)
- Gender — Not specified
- Status — Participants were children who attended public schools.
Location/Institution: Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Play it Safe!® program [now called Play it Safe!® Child Abuse Prevention Program], a school-based childhood physical and sexual abuse prevention program which teaches children to recognize abusive situations, how to respond to potentially abusive situations, and report the abuse to someone who can help stop the abuse. Measures utilized include study-developed pretest and posttest questions. Results indicate that students in grades 1 through 5 had statistically significant higher mean posttest scores, while the difference was not significant among kindergarteners. Limitations include the lack of a control group, the lack of measures with established psychometrics, concerns about surveying children under seven years of age, and differences in the length of time between the Play It Safe! presentation and the posttest.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.
Additional References
University of North Texas Health Science Center. (2020). Evaluation of a school-based child physical and sexual abuse prevention program. In Play it Safe! evaluation (pp. 57–79). Women’s Center of Tarrant County. https://www.playitsafe.org/EvidenceBasedExecutiveSummary.pdf
Contact Information
- Diane Mayfield, M.Ed.
- Agency/Affiliation: The Women’s Center of Tarrant Co., The Play it Safe!® Store
- Website: playitsafe.org
- Email: dmayfield@womenscentertc.org
- Phone: (817) 927-4006
Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: August 2023
Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: October 2023
Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: October 2023
