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Help for everyone
 Praise effort: Praise children and others for effort, rather than for their achievements.
Be positive: As a general rule, we need nine positive messages to balance one negative message, so spend a day noticing everything children and others do right and you will notice a difference.
Mirroring: Remember that adults and parents are models for a child. Try to behave with children and with others as you would like children to behave. Children will copy you but it may take time and practice to get it right.
Praise parents: Even when we are enjoying what we are doing, we all need recognition and praise. Being a parent is particularly important and parents need all the recognition and encouragement we can give. So offer support where it is warranted. Raising children can be hard. Acknowledge when parents are doing a good job.
Understand: Child abuse is mostly not about bad people. Mostly it is about sad situations. Most parents want to do a good job, but some of the time we all ned help to do our best.
Adapt: With so much having changed, not all that we learnt about parenting when we were children will work today. We need to work together to find ways to really support our children in their growing up.
Understand the seriousness of child abuse: try to understand the seriousness as well as the consequences of child abuse. The trauma of childhood abuse can affect a 'child' for a lifetime.
Learn: Learn about what constitutes healthy child development and how to build strong families within cohesive communities.
Listen: Listen to children. Try to understand what they are saying and doing - and why.
Encourage: Encourage children to talk about their problems and be available to share their joys as well.
Allow: Allow children to experiment and make mistakes in a safe and supportive environment.
Find: Find someone to turn to if you are under stress. Everyone, including parents become stressed from time to time. Talk to someone you trust.
Hurt: Don't cross he line and hurt your or other people's children. Take alternative actions, for example, count to ten and think again.
Check out: Check out your child's sporting clubs and other activities for their child protection policy and guidelines about keeping children safe.
Help: Help your children learn ways to keep themselves safe, including emergency numbers.
Internet: Learn about internet safety and teach children to keep themselves safe in the online world.
Understand: Understand that only a small minority of cases of child abuse involves a total stranger, ie, 'stranger danger'. It is far more common for abuse to be perpetrated by someone known to the child or family - a trusted authority figure, such as a parent, another relative, or a family friend.
Believe: Believe what children say and let them trust their instincts. They may have a valid reason why they do not want to spend time with another family member, a relative or other adult. Should a child disclose a history of abuse, believe them. Studies show that children rarely lie about their abuse.
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