Safety Practices and Policies

Identify at least five potentially hazardous situations/safety threats common to your age group.

     There are five potentially hazardous safety threats common to toddlers.  The potentially hazards are falls, burns, guns, poisons, and toys with small parts. Due to the safety hazardous stated above, it is very important to create a safe environment for children of this age group.   

Because of the developmental of toddlers, they tend to explore and test their limits in a new way.    

For each of the hazardous situations or safety threats:

o    Summarize specific safety policies that apply to these situations/threats.

     
The safety policies at the Headstart center states that any equipment (furniture) and toys will be age 

appropriate for both indoor and outside use.  It also states that the equipment will be hazardous free from 

toxins, kept clean, with adequate space to move about, and secured.  It also provides instructions to how 

and what the caregiver should do when caring for the injured child.

o    Describe measures that should be taken to prevent and/or deal with these situations/threats.

     The measure that should be taken to prevent and deal with these situations is to model and practice safety 

precautions with the children.  For example, the caregiver can demonstrate the proper hand-washing 

technique with his or her students.  The caregiver can also ask the toddlers questions that pertain to inside 

and outside rules when they are assembled together in a large group.

o    Indicate what families can do to ensure the safety of the child at home.

     At home, families can implement an escape map in case of a fire, perform fire drills, maintain their smoke 

detectives, install or purchase fire extinguishers, rearrange their furniture to lessen the chances of an injury, 

remove or lock up any cleaning substances or chemicals, install safety gates, use baby monitors, remove any 

cords or cables out of sight, lock or secure cabinet doors, remove and lock-up firearms, knives, and etc.  

The most important thing that families can do to ensure safety is to closely monitor their children themselves.

  

Reference

Robertson, C. (2013). Safety, nutrition, and health in early education (5^th ed.).   Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.