Teaching body consent

Hi, I’m Gemma Arnold from Toddlers, Teens, and Between. I’m the between and toddler expert. And I’m Sophie Ziff, our teen expert. And we’re really excited to share our top tips to help equip you as parents for your toddlers, your teens, and between.

We’re going to talk to you about what is body consent and how you can teach it from a young age. Lately, we need to teach a young people as little as babies and toddlers to prepare them first, as it were, they have total autonomy over their own body. They know their boundaries, they know where they were there, what they want to say yes to and what they want to say no to. So we’ve got some tips for you.

The very first thing you can teach your child is how they can use their body to say hello and goodbye. They don’t need to hug anyone goodbye. If they don’t want to, they can simply wave. Or if they want that connection, they can give a high five. And you can actually offer that choice.

You want to wave or hug, say goodbye to grandma. It’s a really great thing because you’re showing them they don’t have to use their body as a means of communication.

And another really important part is giving your young person the language of their body. You need to, we need to start using velvet, labia, clitoral, penis, testes. These are normal anatomical parts of the body. Why are we using different words for them? People need their own language and their full power.

As a parent, it’s important to talk through what you are doing when you are involved in your children’s personal hygiene matters. Things like changing their nappies, taking them into the bath. Always involve them in the conversation to make sure that they understand what is going on to their own bodies.