SAFE KIDS™
Pediatric safety checklist
- SSkin color
- AAirway and breathing
- FFatigue
- EEngagement
- KKnow medical status and diagnosis
- IInformed consent
- DDocument clearly
- SSpeak up early
What it solves
SAFE KIDS is the pediatric safety checklist that covers both what you watch on the child and the professional scaffolding around the session, so safety is never an afterthought.
When to use it
Keep it as your standing safety frame in any pediatric setting, and lean on it hardest in medically complex ones.
In practice
Safety in pediatrics is observational and procedural. The first four letters, S, A, F, E, are what you watch on the child during the session: skin color, airway and breathing, fatigue, and engagement. The last four, K, I, D, S, are the scaffolding around it: know the medical status, secure informed consent, document your reasoning clearly, and speak up early when something feels off.
SAFE KIDS™ is one of 14 frameworks in the Playbook
Read the full treatment in Chapter 4 of the Pediatric PT Playbook (Safety, Consent, and Professional Responsibility), with the cases, scripts, and documentation to match.
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