UB Psychology Team chose to introduce body parts from an early age so that children understand which parts of the body cannot be touched or can be touched, as well as whether they can or cannot be seen.
This can be seen in the community service carried out by UB Psychology team, Thursday (28/3/2024) at Permata Iman 2 Kindergarten, Malang City. UB Psychology community service team, Elmy Bonafita Zahro S.Psi., M.Psi gave an example of hands used for acquaintances.
“We also introduce that, for example, other private body parts such as the chest, stomach and mouth cannot be touched by random people. So, they have awareness of their personal bodies,” she said, Monday (1/4/2024).
This introduction to the body from an early age, said Elmy Bonafita, is that children can become more independent, such as urinating themselves, bathing themselves and also being able to care for their private body parts.
“So, if there are friends or adults they have just met or know, they know the boundaries and if that part of their body is touched, they can dare to say no,” she explained.
According to Elmy Bonafita, with current developments, especially on social media, it is important to recognize the body.
“It could be that the content is not permitted for children to watch, for example there are scenes that are inappropriate and dangerous. So here the hope is that through this education children will also understand the limits in watching, which scenes can be watched and which cannot,” she explained.
In this introduction to the body, the psycho-educational method used is story telling. UB Psychology Team uses a book entitled “My Secret Book”.
“From that, students were asked to be given stories using the reading aloud method, at the end they were given posters to confirm their body parts,” continued Elmy Bonafita.
Furthermore, a pre-test and post-test were also carried out on each child. “We intersperse it with coloring activities. So when other students are coloring, there are those who carry out pre-tests and post-tests,” she said.
Elmy Bonafita hopes that with this activity students will have awareness in recognizing their personal bodies, especially which ones can be touched or not.
“So, let’s try this kind of educational model first, whether it is effective or not. If it is effective, we can adopt it as a separate learning motif for other kindergarten schools,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Permata Iman 2 Kindergarten teacher, Malang City, Suestin Fefi Wilastyowati admitted that this activity was very helpful for the school, especially since the theme chosen was body parts, especially those that can be held and those that cannot be held.
Suestin explained that UB Psychology’s community service activities were in line with their curriculum.
“We have been greatly helped by this community service. Moreover, when there are guests, these children are more focused on listening. Hopefully in the future, with this explanation from UB students, the children will be able to understand more about the parts of the body,” he explained.
Suestin admitted that in the current era, especially regarding the use of social media, the potential for violence against children could occur.
“If I look at this theme, it is very, very important. So children should be more careful about people they don’t know,” she stressed.
This UB Psychology community service activity was carried out in four classes of B level at Permata Iman 2 Kindergarten, Malang City. The service team and facilitators provided material in the form of pictures of body parts to the students. (FISIP PR/OKY/ UB PR/ Trans. Iir)
