How to teach children about breast cancer?
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at
8:11 pm
S.S asked:
So since october is breast cancer month in school we want to have a presentation for elementary children to help them and understand more about what breast cancer is> Since they are little kids we don’t want to spend alot of time talking about it because they won’t really understand, so instead i want to make a video that is an introduction for them but i need ideas on how to start it and how much should i tell them about breast cancer
So since october is breast cancer month in school we want to have a presentation for elementary children to help them and understand more about what breast cancer is> Since they are little kids we don’t want to spend alot of time talking about it because they won’t really understand, so instead i want to make a video that is an introduction for them but i need ideas on how to start it and how much should i tell them about breast cancer
Tagged with: Alot • Little Kids • Presentation
Filed under: Breast Cancer
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Since you say that they are “little kids”,then theres not much you can say that they need to understand,except,that it is a bad illness,and that all grown women should check theirselves out and should let a dr check them out,so tell them that they should go home and tell their mommies and all adult ladies in their home to please go to the dr and get a breast exam,because they love them and don’t want them to get sick.Thats what I would focus on-Good Luck !
Ahhhhhh, I don’t know about that.
Little kids, mostly you’re going to get uncontrollable giggles the minute you say “breast.”
I don’t think young children need to have their awareness raised about breast cancer.
I think it’s completely unnecessary for young children to have such a presentation. I think it would cause unnecessary fear and worry.
I have spent most of my working life as a primary school teacher, and would never have considered this appropriate.
Almost every day, teenage girls post to this forum terrified that they have breast cancer; often this is as a result of a talk, sometimes at school, from someone who has neglected to tell them that at their age their chances of getting it are just about nil. They have left the talk believing they need to examine their breasts and that any lump they find may be cancer, when in fact breast self-examination is not advised before the age of 20.
How much more worrying would this be for young children. Depending on their ages, some would worry that they have it; and many more would worry about their mothers. When in fact the mothers, and in some cases the grandmothers, of primary school children are almost certainly not yet in an age group where breast cancer is a risk – it’s almost unheard of in under 25s, fewer than 0.1% of those diagnosed with it are under 30, only 5% are under 40 and most (80%) are over 50. The average age at diagnosis is a little over 60.
I think the potential danger of misinforation and incomplete information when doing a presentation on this for any age group are huge, unless those doing the presentation know exactly what they are talking about – witness the worry caused to teenage girls.
Young children do not need to have their awareness of an adult cancer whose main risk factor is being over 50 raised.
The time to talk to a young child about any type of cancer is when a family member or someone else close has it.
A more useful presentation would be one in which you explained to teenagers that they are not at risk, do not need to examine their breasts and have more chance of being struck by lightening while on their way to cash in their jackpot-winning lottery ticket than they do of developing breast cancer.
lo-mcg is 100% correct.
Breast cancer awareness talks to teenagers causes more stress than any other single cause on these question pages.
If you MUST talk to young children about it, tell them it is something grownups sometimes get without knowing about it so that is why we should all have regular check ups. If a Dr finds it at a check up they can treat it and you will get better.