In the home, the private places are:

• your child’s bedroom
• the bathroom/toilet

Public places in the home are the:

• living room
• kitchen
• backyard
• other people’s bedrooms
• any other place in the home

These places are public because anybody can be there and you cannot control who comes and goes from the place. In the home, this might be siblings, parents and other visitors. It is important that your child can tell the difference between public and private places in the home. While some families feel comfortable with nudity in public places of the home, this can be confusing for some children especially when they require more learning support. Children need to be able to transfer their knowledge about public and private places to different living situations, especially when they grow up and live out of home, so it’s important to make sure that public and private boundaries exist in living spaces. The intention of having clear boundaries of public and private is not to be ashamed of the body, but to set your child up for success when they get older.

Some children share bedrooms and some families sleep together in the same bedroom. This is OK. It’s important to ensure that when your child shares a bed or a room, that private behaviour is either:

1. scheduled for a particular time of day or signalled with a sign on the door
2. evenly allocated between room occupants, to make sure that your child isn’t constantly reducing access for others
3. redirected to the toilet or bathroom if the room is occupied by another person

If your child needs support in the bathroom, it’s important to:

1. seek their consent – See Consent And Personal Care
2. ensure that doors are closed to avoid others being able to see into the private place

This shows your child that they should expect privacy in the home and that people should ask before entering their private place.

If your child wants to be alone in their private place that is something they should be able to do. It’s important for everyone to have private time and you can encourage this by scheduling time in private for your child. Make sure to knock or announce yourself before entering someone’s private place to help reinforce learning.   You may find that it takes your child a long time to develop their public and private skills. This is normal! Consistent reinforcement and redirection is key to mastering private behaviours in private places. It is also very important for other family members to practice asserting ownership of their private place. This is positive modelling and will help cement the public and private skills. You should also schedule private time for yourself! See Self Care.Having time to yourself in a private place is important for everybody, including parents. Don’t be afraid to say no to being interrupted when you are in your private place. This is a great way to model to your child that respecting people’s private places is important and is something they should expect for themselves.    

When you are out and about in the community, the only private places are:

• toilets and change rooms

While toilets and change rooms in the community are private places, it is important to teach your child that they are private for changing and going to the toilet only. Exploration of private body parts should happen only in private places at home. To learn more about this, go to Private Behaviours. Public places in the community are everywhere. This includes places like school, shopping centres and outdoors. They are public places because anybody can be there and your child cannot control who comes and goes from the places. Public places in the community are also subject to restrictions and laws around covering private body parts. Private parts should always be covered in a public place.