Adventure Safely: Animal Kingdom’s “Wild About Safety” Fun Book and Tip Cards
Having a magical experience at Disney starts with personal safety. If you are visiting the parks with anyone who has challenges with personal safety (including typically developing children), preparation starts at home. Fortunately, Disney excels at entertaining and informing guests on behavior “do’s and don’ts” to ensure everyone has a safe day. Various resources are available, including the Wild About Safety Fun Book, Safety Tip Cards, and the family-friendly website disneywildaboutsafety.com.
Once you are in the parks, the safety reminders primarily take the form of Cast Member announcements and signage. Frequent visitors can probably recite whole sections of dialogue from favorite rides or transportation safety announcements. Animal Kingdom has an additional layer of support: the free Wild About Safety Fun Book and accompanying Safety Tip Cards. These materials feature Timon and Pumbaa and are published by Disney Parks and Resorts. While the intended audience is elementary-aged children, it was developed to support individuals with significant cognitive and/or developmental disabilities.
Wild About Safety tips
The Wild About Safety Fun Book is small in size but mighty in scope! The topics include personal safety, good hygiene, ride safety, and using good manners. I particularly like that the majority are very generalizable to daily life. They are presented in the familiar context of beloved, generally silly Disney characters. For example, one tip states “Don’t wait too late to hydrate”, with a visual support of Timon and Pumbaa pulling a water tank under an oversized sun. The accompanying tip card has the same text and graphics as the book. The book has a simple water bottle identification activity on the page.
The flexibility of the design
If the book is too overstimulating or isn’t developmentally appropriate, the tip card can serve as the entire message. Otherwise, it can also function as a supportive reminder cue to be used after the initial message is presented in the book. It can similarly be scaffolded to be more complex for individuals who need a little less support by completing the activities, and possibly extending them. For example, there is a Safety Smart at Home checklist on the last page of the book that includes knowing personal information and safety plans. This provides a great opportunity for individuals to practice communicating their name, address, and phone number, which is a critical life skill.
This flexibility is especially helpful for individuals who have difficulty transferring behavioral skills between environments. For example, in my career in special education, I had students who would eat a certain food at school, but not at home. Or they would wash their hands in the bathroom but not in the clinic. Individuals are more likely to learn to apply new skills across settings if the supports used to teach the skills are carried across those settings.
It’s evident to me that significant care and consideration were taken to prevent this series from reading as too juvenile to be accessible and appropriate for all ages. The vocabulary level is on the high side with words like “hydrate” and “designated.” The illustrations that feature the home are also very appropriate and avoid implying any particular age range.
Where to find it
The Wild About Safety Fun Book and cards can be found at Animal Kingdom’s Guest Relations inside the park’s entrance. You will need to ask the Cast Member specifically for the set. There’s no additional charge for the book or cards. I am very impressed by the quality and design of these materials. I sincerely hope that Disney continues to develop and distribute materials like these with multiple audiences in mind.
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