What is typically expected sexual behaviour of children? A new resource…
Aug 26, 2021
Originally posted 16/12/2019
Traffic Lights® Resource
What has always been a brilliant resource has just got even better.
The Traffic Lights® Booklet is a guide to identify, understand, and respond to sexual behaviours and uses the traffic light colours to help professionals identify age appropriate sexual behaviour.
Click here to purchase the new Traffic Lights® booklet
The new version talks about what is ‘typically developmentally appropriate’ rather than ‘normal’ and also has us focus more on the ‘context’ of behaviour as more important than the ‘actual’ behaviour.
“...Traffic Lights® provides guidance that is age and developmentally appropriate, positive and protective. Traffic Lights® uses the categories of green, orange and red light to help adults identify, understand, and respond to children and young people’s sexual behaviours, to support healthy sexual development and can help protect children and young people from harm or abuse. Traffic Lights® can be used by a wide variety of professionals including schools, early childhood education and care centres, health professionals, social workers, psychologists and may also be used by families…”
Some examples of changes in language from the resource include:
| Normal behaviour | Typically expected behaviour |
| Boyfriend or Girlfriend | Relationship of any gender or peer of any gender |
| Kissing/touching | Mutually consenting *sexual activity for pleasure in private (don’t focus on or name behaviour because it is about context) |
*My preference would be to replace sexual with intimate here
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