Question

I do not want to make the properties of class example accessible only to it’s children, but I want the children to be able to change them apart from the initial __construct. This is how I have things set up at the moment. Can I be doing this a better way?

class example{
    private $x
    protected function __construct($x){
        setX($x);
    }
    private function setX($x){
        $this->x = $x;
    }
    protected function getX{
        return $this->x;
    }
}

Answer 1

Do I understand correctly that you only want $x to be readable (but not editable) by it’s children?

Then yes your class definition looks alright (albeit the syntax errors).

Children cannot access private members, only protected (and public, durhur).