Teaching Children How to Get Help in Emergencies

One of the easier safety skills children can master is getting help when it's needed. Even very small children can be taught to use the phone or run to a neighbor's house if someone in your family is hurt or threatened. These skills are especially important for children who are often home alone.

1. Making Emergency Phone Calls

Prominently post all important numbers next to the telephone, including

• fire department
• police department
• medical emergency
• parents' work phone numbers
• a trusted neighbor or nearby friend.

By the time children are five or six, they should know their own phone number and address and their parents' work numbers.Show your children how to dial the emergency numbers on your phone. On many phones, you can also program in important phone numbers. You may wish to get a phone with extra-large numerals on the key pad to make it easier for children to hit the correct numbers in an emergency.

Practice with the children so they'll be familiar with the questions a dispatcher might ask. Use a play phone or disconnect your real phone while you practice. Pretend you are the police dispatcher and ask these questions:

• What is your name?
• What is your address?
• Where are you calling from?
• What has happened?
• Was anyone hurt?

Tell your children that the emergency dispatcher may have other questions, so they should stay on the line until the dispatcher says good-bye.

After you've completed the practice session (don't forget to re-connect the phone!), ask the children how they are feeling. Listen carefully and discuss any concerns the practice raised. Emphasize the positive aspects of making emergency calls so the child will feel useful and grown-up for being able to handle this situation. And definitely stress the idea that emergency phone numbers are not to be played with, but are to be used in emergencies only.

Parents can also arrange to take neighborhood children on a tour of the police department so they can actually meet dispatchers and other law enforcement personnel. When children can attach a face to a person who may be on the other end of the phone line, it helps them understand the emergency response system better and may help them keep calm if they have to make a call.

2. Finding Help In The Neighborhood

Children should also know where to turn for help in the neighborhood. Take a walk through the neighborhood together and point out the houses where your children might find help. Make sure they know the nearest adults who can be counted on to offer assistance, and that these adults know the children have been instructed to turn to them for help. Your neighborhood may have Block Parents, volunteers who temporarily take care of children during an emergency. If so, make sure your children know the signs identifying homes of Block Parents.