Tough Topics...
    in easy terms

Trouble answering a tough question from your child? Try these responses which break down complicated ideas into easy concepts for children to understand. Reprinted with permission from When Sex is the Subject: attitudes and answers for young children: suggestions for teachers, parents and other care providers of children to age 10 by Pamela Wilson. 

Adoption | Childbirth | Clitoris | Erection | Intercourse | Life Cycle | Menstruation | Penis | Reproduction | Uterus | Vagina

Adoption

  1. Sometimes a mom and dad have a baby and realize they can't give it the love, food, shelter and clothing it needs.
  2. If the mom and dad can find another man and woman to be this child's legal parents, the child is adopted.
  3. Once children are adopted, they're members of their new family forever, just like all other sons and daughters.

Childbirth

  1. Babies grow inside their mothers in a special place called the uterus.
  2. The baby usually comes out the mother's body through an opening between her legs (called the vagina).
  3. But sometimes the doctor makes a cut (or an opening) in the mom's abdomen (point to it) and takes it out that way.
  4. Either way that the baby is born is OK.

Clitoris

  1. The clitoris is a special part of a girl's body
  2. The clitoris is a very small body part between a girl's legs
  3. When the clitoris is touched, it usually brings very good feelings.

Erection

  1. Sometimes a boy's or man's penis gets stiff.
  2. It's something that happens to penises from time to time and it's OK.
  3. It often means the boy is having good feelings in his penis.

Intercourse

  1. Intercourse is something people do when they're grown up.
  2. It happens when a man puts his penis inside the woman's vagina.
  3. People have intercourse for a lot of different reasons.
  4. One reason is to make a baby; another reason is to show love and get good feelings.

Life Cycle

  1. When you're first born, you're a baby.
  2. As you grow and change, you become a child, then a teenager, then an adult.
  3. Adults get older - like some of your grandparents - and then all people die at some point.
  4. The time we spend growing and changing from birth to death is called the life cycle.

Menstruation

  1. Menstruation, or having periods, is something that happens to girls when they get older.
  2. It helps make a girl's body able to have babies.
  3. It's something natural and healthy that all girls experience.

Penis

  1. The penis is the body part of a man or boy that hangs between his legs.
  2. The penis is very sensitive and usually feels good when it is touched.
  3. A boy uses his penis to urinate or "pee" and for sexual intercourse when he grows up.

Reproduction

  1. Reproduction means to make more.
  2. With living things, it means to make more of the same kind of living thing... more dogs (puppies), cats (kittens) or humans (babies).

Uterus

  1. The uterus is the place inside a woman's body where the baby grows before it's born.
  2. The uterus is inside the woman's body, just below her belly button.

Vagina

  1. The vagina is the opening between a woman's legs.
  2. A baby comes out through this opening when it's born.
  3. The penis goes into this opening during sexual intercourse.

© ETR Associates.  All rights Reserved.  Reprinted with permission from ETR Associates, Scotts Valley, CA.  For more information about this and other related materials, call 1-800-321-4407.

The way children grow and develop varies from child to child. The information presented here represents the typical process of sexual development during childhood. If you have concerns about your child’s development we encourage you to speak with your pediatrician.

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