ROTECTING YOU/PROTECTING ME Developed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Recent scientific research shows that the brains of children and adolescents are significantly different from the brains of adults. This makes children and adolescents more vulnerable to risks from the use of alcohol and other drugs. Although children in the earliest elementary grades are generally against all forms of substance abuse, the risk for alcohol and other drug use increases when they enter grade 6 (between ages 12 and 13). It is therefore imperative that educators reach children in grades 1–5, before they have fully shaped their attitudes and opinions about alcohol use and their role in preventing it.

Protecting You/Protecting Me is the only elementary-school-level curriculum available that incorporates the latest research on children’s brains and developmental risks associated with exposure to alcohol before the age of 21. PY/PM teaches students in grades 1–5 how their brains work and how alcohol puts their brains in danger. It also equips them with safety skills, including how to refuse a ride from an adult driver who is not alcohol free (such as an adult partygoer driving a babysitter home), and how to reduce the risks when there is no option but to ride with a driver who has consumed alcohol and may be impaired (such as parents/guardians who drink and drive). PY/PM is designed to reduce alcohol use among children and youth and reduce their riding with impaired drivers.

The curriculum addresses eight topics: Our Brain, Growth and Development, Health and Safety, Rules and Laws, Friends, Choices and Decisions, Media Awareness, and Communication (especially with adults). Lessons are taught in sequence, with the same topics repeated for each grade level with increasing sophistication paralleling cognitive and social development. The lessons are designed to be incorporated into the core school curriculum in health, language arts, social studies, math, and the fine arts. The program also includes parental involvement activities.

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