Fire Prevention week may be months away, but it’s not too early to begin planning for the event and it’s never a bad time to teach fire prevention to kids.

To help that effort, the National Fire Protection Association contracted with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, in Baltimore to figure out the best way to communicate safety messages to kids 4 to 9 years old. The study, funded by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency Fire Prevention and Safety grant of more than $600,000, found that kids respond to positive messages with parental reinforcement and guidance.

During NFPA’s conference and expo in Boston earlier this month, the findings of the research was presented to a meeting room packed with fire service personnel, educators and a host of other interested parties.

“The take away is children respond better to positive messages with guided parental discussion,” said Dr. Rajiv Rimal of John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was a co-investigator for the study.

The study, which resulted in the creation of an 84-page document, said: “Overall, findings from this research suggest that the impact of safety messages on children will be greatest when framed positively, parents are encouraged to discuss these messages with children, and parents are provided with discussion guidelines.”