Session 7

The Orange Wave Circle

The Orange Wave Circle includes all children, including those whose faces are familiar (unless the child’s parent has designed a closer circle relationship). We encourage strict adherence to this placement to protect learners, as described in more detail below.

The three “Ts” for the Orange Wave Circle are:

• TALK. Your learner can give short verbal responses, but not engage in long conversations.
• TRUST. Your learner can have only limited trust since children are immature and do not know about adult responsibilities
• TOUCH. Your learner can smile, nod or wave. There is no touching.

Concepts:

• The placement of all children in the Orange Wave Circle sends a clear message that your learner’s interactions with children (outside of their family) should not include extensive conversation or touch, and should be limited to a wave or nod of the head. Because our learners will sometimes be apart from us, it is safest to limit interactions with children to protect our learners from engaging in innocent but inappropriate interactions. In explaining this idea to our learners, we talk about maturity, adult responsibilities and boundaries that your learner understands, but that a child might not. In that way, your learner is protecting the child by teaching them about boundaries.

• Because we use a strict rule for children, the Six Deciding Factors don’t apply as directly as in other circles. Your learner may recognize the child, may live on the same block as the child, and may know their name, but unless the child’s parent has placed the child in another circle, your learner is not supposed to interact except as set forth in the 3Ts above.
• [ADVANCED ONLY] For some more mature learners, you might also be able to include neighbors the learner has met, but does not interact with beyond a wave, as well as community helpers or health workers with whom they have interacted with in the Orange Wave Circle. This gives your learner more options about how they might relate to people traditionally found in the Red Stranger Circle.

Learning Objectives

Participants will learn/understand:

• All children are in the Orange Wave Circle
• The three “T” rules for the Orange Wave Circle
• The sign for the Orange Wave Circle