When kids are preschool age, they are eager to follow rules and learn what’s “good” and “bad.” This is a good time to practice the decision-making skills that will be so valuable as they get older.

Some suggestions on helping your preschool children make good decisions about what should and should not go into their bodies:

• Have your child name several favorite good foods and explain how these foods contribute to health and strength.
• Constantly remind your child that you love him or her. This will help build strong bonds of trust and affection that will make turning away from drugs easier in the years to come.
• Provide guidelines like playing fair, sharing toys, and telling the truth so children know what kind of behavior you expect from them. Be sure to model that behavior.
• Encourage your child to follow instructions, and to ask questions if he does not understand.
• Give your child choices, like choosing what to wear. This reinforces your child’s ability to make decisions.
• Point out poisonous and harmful substances commonly found in homes, such as bleach, kitchen cleanser, and furniture polish, and read the products’ warning labels out loud. Explain that not all “bad” drugs have warnings on them, so they should only eat or smell food or a prescribed medicine that you give them.
• Explain that prescription medications are drugs that can help the person for whom they are meant but that can harm anyone else–especially children, who must stay away from them.

Visit our resources section to view excellent tools for parents of children this age.

Is it too early to talk with kids in grades kindergarten through three about drugs? No, in fact the opposite is true. It is an excellent time to begin to explain what alcohol, tobacco and drugs are, that some people use them even though they are harmful, and the consequences of using them.

• Discuss how you should only put food in your body, and anything else can be extremely harmful.
• Praise your children for taking good care of their bodies and avoiding things that might harm them.
• Explain the idea of addiction–that use can become a very bad habit that is hard to stop.
• Remind your child how drugs interfere with the way our bodies work and can make people very sick or even cause them to die.
• Explain that prescription medicines are indeed sometimes called drugs, and these drugs can help the person for whom they are meant but can harm anyone else–especially children, who must stay away from them.

Visit our resources section to view excellent tools for parents of children this age.

When your children are in grades four, five and six, substance use emerges as a definite possibility. As children reach the upper elementary and early middle school grades, they’re more and more likely to encounter someone using, or trying to get them to use, drugs or alcohol. Fortunately, at this age they can also handle more sophisticated discussion about why people take drugs or drink alcohol. As always, your communication with them is extremely crucial.

By the time children are this age, it’s important for them to know:

• The immediate effects of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use on different parts of the body, including risks of coma or fatal overdose. In other words, even your first use can be deadly;
• The long-term consequences–how and why drugs can be addicting and make users lose control of their lives.
• The reasons why drugs are especially dangerous for growing bodies. They can damage the brain, heart, and other important organs. A person using drugs is also less able to do well in school, sports, and other activities. It's often harder to think clearly and make good decisions.
• The problems that alcohol and other illegal drugs cause not only to the user, but the user’s family and world.

Visit our resources section to view excellent tools for parents of children this age.

Discuss your family’s values, rules and expectations for behavior.

Be clear about your value system, and remind your teen often.

Don’t be afraid to set limits.

Be consistent and predictable. Teens do better when they know what the limits are for their behavior, despite what they may tell you!

Promote health & safety.

Monitor your teen’s whereabouts, be aware of driving arrangements, and call other parents to check out activities, chaperoning etc. ahead of time.

Know your teen’s friends.

Encourage communication

Listen when they are speaking to you, and give positive reinforcement for coming to you by sayings things like, “That’s a great question.” or I’m really glad you told me about this.”

Provide discipline when necessary

Be clear from the outset what the consequences will be for breaking a family, rule, then stick to it. Not following through on appropriate discipline teaches kids that parents can’t be trusted to provide boundaries. Remember that discipline is a part of teaching teens how to behave in successful ways.

Support appropriate rules and consequences at school and in the community

Teens respond best when expectations and consequences are consistent. It seems confusing and hypocritical to kids if unhealthy behaviors are accepted at home but not at school, for example.

*Give as much positive reinforcement as possible

When teens do well, tell them!  It really does matter to them what the adults in their lives think!