Let's Talk About Touching (LTAT)
Let’s Talk About Touching (LTAT) is a comprehensive program designed by the Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) to support children’s learning about personal safety and body awareness, specifically aimed at increasing abuse resistance skills in children aged 0-8 years. Widely implemented across Early Learning and Child Care programs and Primary school settings, LTAT is an essential resource for Early Years Educators.
The program emphasizes the importance of body autonomy, teaching children their right to control who touches them and how they are touched. LTAT equips children with skills to protect themselves, introducing six body safety rules, encouraging them to say "no" or "stop," to get away, and to seek help from a trusted adult. Children learn to differentiate between safe and unsafe touches, fostering a foundation for personal safety.
LTAT Training
The third edition of LTAT reflects current educational practices and is responsive to the diverse needs of children and families. This edition includes new insights from research on sexual abuse prevention and feedback from the evaluation of the second edition. It integrates a trauma-informed lens, recognizing the impact of assimilation, colonization, residential schools, and other generational traumas on Indigenous communities. The updates also include considerations around gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation.
The revised LTAT was developed with input from early learning and childcare educators, primary teachers, sexual health experts, and other professionals. The program aligns with the BC Early Learning Framework (ELF), the Indigenous Early Learning and Childcare Framework (IELCCF), and the ECEBC Code of Ethics, promoting cultural sensitivity, inclusivity, and critical reflection when implementing LTAT with children.
Training For ECE's & Teachers
Educators must complete a 14.5-hour training to access the LTAT kit. After completing the training, participants submit an implementation package/plan to ECEBC. Once approved, they receive the LTAT Kit and can begin using the program with children. Upon successful implementation, educators are awarded a Let’s Talk About Touching Educator Certificate.
Research supports that young children best learn prevention concepts and skills through long-term, active programs tailored to their developmental stage, making LTAT a valuable tool for early childhood settings.
The Kit
The LTAT kit includes:
- A Children’s Program Guide
- Access to the LTAT Community of Practice on the BC Early Year Hub, featuring resources for educators and families
- 8 teaching pictures (11”x17” photographs) depicting positive touch
- 10 felt board figures and 4 cards of felt board words
- 45 sorting cards of positive touch
- 2 puppets with 16 interchangeable faces to represent different characters
- Let’s Talk Song Collection
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2 teaching dolls
Training For Community Supports
ECEBC recognizes the importance of developing local networks of administrators, community agencies and professionals who can support the Let’s Talk prevention program. Other applicants will be considered on by a case-by-case basis. As non-implementing attendees, a kit will not be provided. Please contact: crawling@ecebc.ca to discuss eligibility.
Communities may wish to contact ECEBC to discuss teacher training or other custom training in their communities. LTAT information sessions for other interested health and social service professionals and community members are available on request.
Becoming A Let's Talk Trainer
ECEBC is looking for experienced and knowledgeable trainers to offer the LTAT Teacher Training to educators in their communities. The Train-the-Trainer program prepares experienced program facilitators to offer Let's Talk Teacher Training to ECEs and primary teachers in their communities. It is ECEBC’s policy that facilitators who qualify to become LTAT Trainers have the necessary skills and abilities to work with groups of adults. These include good communication skills, comfort with public speaking and some knowledge of, or experience with, teaching and facilitating groups working with sensitive content. The aim is to maintain a high quality of teacher training through the province. Ideal candidates have at least two years recent experience teaching children and implementing the Let’s Talk About Touching Sexual Abuse Prevention Program in classroom and/or a combination of comparable skills and experience.
ECEBC recognizes that our training policies may not apply to all communities in British Columbia, particularly those where no trained ECE or Primary School Teacher is available. For such communities, ECEBC acknowledges that other health and social service professionals may be the best choice for participating in training and will examine each situation on a case-by-case basis.
For more information and to receive an application package, please contact Annette at amaglieri@ecebc.ca
Child Care Provider FAQ's
The Let's Talk program manual includes a sample letter for families, a parent newsletter and handouts on the lessons in 7 languages. Parent meetings are recommended prior to beginning Let’s Talk in your centre or classroom.
Since Let's Talk is designed for children 4 to 6 years of age, you will need to be careful to direct your instruction only to the children in your centre in that age range. Some family child care providers report that bringing in an additional caregiver on days when the program is being delivered helps to keep the focus on the appropriate age group.
Let's Talk: teacher training (for delivering the program to children), is a three-part process. Step one: classroom preparation (which) takes sixteen hours. Step two is participation in a virtual Community of Practice and Step three is the submission of an implementation package to ECEBC for approval.
Parent FAQ's
Let's Talk teaches children that their bodies are their own and that they have some choice about who touches them and how they are touched. While emphasizing the fun, caring and helpful touches young children experience in their lives, it helps them to recognize touches that are “not okay”. They learn and practice three safety rules: say “no” or “stop”, get away and tell an adult.
Let's Talk is delivered in a very child-friendly, sensitive manner and emphasizes positive, appropriate touch. A comprehensive evaluation of Let's Talk found that it did not cause anxiety, or confusion about positive touch.
Your child’s caregiver will be able to provide you with more detailed information about Let's Talk, including an information package and newsletter created specifically for parents.
People Are Talking!
What Early Childhood Educators are saying about Let’s Talk.