Program gives children positive outlets for problems

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Justin Goodrich
  • Det. 8, Air Force News Agency
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFNEWS) --  With April as Month of the Military Child, Aviano Air Base members are helping base youths by teaching children that hitting each other is not acceptable and helped give them a positive outlet to deal with their problems.

Children at Aviano AB's elementary school learned about the dangers of using violence to solve their problems with a drawing activity where children used their creativity to make a drawing where they used their hands in a better way than hitting. 

When they finished the drawing, they took it home to their parents to remind them their hands are also not for hitting.

"There is no person who I think is dearer to parents, and having children bring home the message is a positive way to remind their parents," said Casey Wichlacz, Aviano AB's Family Advocacy Outreach manager.

Aviano AB's Family Advocacy staff put this activity together to get the message across for both kids and parents. Children learn their behavior from what they see, so this lesson was a reminder that there are better ways to deal with problems.

"Hitting has some real disadvantages. It leaves emotional scars and it creates anger," Mr. Wichlacz said.

Most of the first graders learned a valuable lesson from this activity.

"Never hit somebody because that will hurt them," said Tanner Veale, a first grader. "People should just do nice things with their hands."

Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

Click here to view the comments/letters page