Even when children are taught to be cautious, there are ways for adults to reach out and make a difference.

These are confusing times for children and the adults who care about them. Various community efforts, including the Kansas Health Foundation’s highly visible “Which One Were You?” campaign are urging adults to get involved with the young people around them. Studies show that children who are acknowledged and feel valued by adults outside their families are more likely to be successful and well-adjusted.

At the same time, unfortunately, events are making many parents urge their children to be cautious with adults they don’t know. They are concerned about their children’s safety. National news about kidnapped children and last week’s report of an 8-year-old girl being “touched inappropriately” by a man she encountered in Lawrence’s Naismith Park, show that these concerns are not unfounded.

How do you raise a child to be cautious without being paranoid, to be safe without being scared?

There are common-sense approaches for adults who want to interact more with the children and youth around them. For many people, a simple move is to take more time with the young people you already know and whose parents already know you. Learn the names of children in your neighborhood; talk (and listen!) to a youngster at church about what he or she is doing this summer, praise a helpful teenage store clerk.

Children and teens probably would be surprised to know how difficult such simple acts are for adults, but adults are self-conscious, too. They are afraid that young people will find them boring or old-fashioned. And it takes a little time, a little effort, to reach out to people, young or old, who you don’t know.

There also are many organized volunteer opportunities that bring adults and children together to read, play sports or share common interests. But even people who think they don’t have time for a significant volunteer commitment can make a difference with a child just by taking a few minutes to acknowledge him or her.

Everyone understands the desire of parents to keep their children safe and the need for them to issue whatever warnings and cautions they think will accomplish that goal. It’s too bad that not every adult who approaches a child can be trusted to treat that child with respect and caring. But almost every adult knows children they can approach without posing a threat, and taking even a few minutes really can make a difference.