"Avola" : Sex Education for children and their parents
Children and adolescents’ access to comprehensive sex education has been consistently shown to be highly beneficial for their development and quality of life. Numerous studies and the International Health Organization indicate that it offers long-term results. A more holistic and well informed approach to sex is associated with a greater likelihood of delaying the onset of sexual activity and with safer and more consensual sexual practices. In addition, sex education helps children and adolescents prepare for and manage physical and emotional changes as they grow older, familiarizes them with the concept and practices of consent, and encourages them to seek help if needed. This, in turn, reduces their risk of experiencing sexual violence and exploitation.
However, for many parents, talking about sex remains difficult and uncomfortable, both because parents themselves may lack the knowledge they are called upon to impart and because, often, they have associated sex with shame and secrecy.
Recognising the importance of starting discussions about the body, sexuality and sex at an early age, as well as the benefits of these discussions, we provide educational sessions for parents and children to help them make healthy and informed choices about relationships, sex and intimacy.
Sessions are available for parents alone, and there is the option to talk directly with children, either with their parents or individually.
Sessions with parents: In the meetings, the number of which is agreed upon during the first session, parents can build up their own skills around the key issues of sex education, so that they can then talk to their children. Possible topics include understanding the developmental stages that children go through, essential knowledge about sex and relationships by age, information around the concepts of gender and sexual orientation, communication practices that facilitate “uncomfortable” conversations, etc. During the sessions, we can also provide additional resources, such as books, series and films, which can be a starting point for discussion with children.
Sessions with children/teenagers:
In the case of sessions involving children, the initial meeting and target setting is done together with the parents, where the framework and boundaries of our psycho-educational intervention are agreed upon. Themes are adapted to the age of the child and may include:
- Physical, social and emotional changes of adolescence
- First period, ejaculation and sexual dreams
- Gender identities and sexual orientation
- Different forms of relationships, family and companionship
- Reproductive processes: fertility, pregnancy, childbirth
- Safer sex: consent, contraception, prevention of STIs