What age do you teach your child about 999? or 911?

[DizzyMoo]

Hi i'm asking this in both this section & also the younger toddler section to get a wider response so if you replied on one thread you can ignore the other .

Just watching real 999 calls & there was a young boy say around 4 yrs old who had to phone 999 as his mummy was fitting on the floor. This has got me wondering about my son & when to teach him about ringing 999 .

So ladies what are your views on this? Have you taught your child what to do? If so what age & how did you do it? If you haven't done this yet have you thought about it & when you think you might do it?

 

[~KACI~]

I think it depends on the maturity of the child, Kieran i will consider doing it in the next few months i think, but put the empises on if mummy(or someone else) won't wake up then ring, and just focus on that, if you tell a young child to ring when someone is 'hurt' then they mite try ringing if you cut your finger iykwim

 

[DizzyMoo]

Oh yep totally understand you have to be clear but yet vague in some way so they dont ring for something quite minor. I think when josh goes back to nursery in september i'm going to ask them what they do if they show the kiddies anything too, or ill ask the fire brigade their advice on it, They are really good here & dont mind any day kiddies going down to look round or sit in the engines & are always happy to offer advice. So i think ill start by asking them a little something then go from there.

My son will be 4 in november & i think i might start then. We'll have a new baby the same month too. Not going to bombard or anything but sometime after he goes 4 i think i'll start

 

[butrfly]

i'm a preschool teacher and teach students in my 4-year-old class to do this.

 

[DizzyMoo]

oooh can you give us a bit more info hun, like what you do ? or whether you have to get permission from parents before teaching them or is just done anyway? what do you tell them or show them? x

 

[butrfly]

we often have this lesson with children who can match numbers and/or identify them. in this part of the world, we still have different ones for different agencies (police, fire station & ambulance), so teachers have to agree which one to start the kids off with.

it's always best to tie it in with the theme community helpers or the community or safety. each week we feature one agency (i.e. fire station) and we talk about who to call when we see fire (firemen) and then we talk about how to call them (the telephone). we show them the numbers, ask them to identify the numbers (for children who still can't id numbers, we have a toy phone we use for them to push the number matching the one on our card). we put a fire beside this number & review the number we call for a fire. the children take turns dialling the number on the toy / non-working phone. (agencies have three digits on their phone numbers so it doesn't take too long for most children to go through this exercise.)

ofcourse, we always remind the children that they should look for an adult first when they see a fire/need help/find someone really hurt or sick - and if they can't find one, to ring the number up. we repeat the whole process the following week when we change our weekly theme (i.e. police station)

parents are informed through the monthly newsletter which features the class' lessons throughout the month. they are also requested to discuss this with the child & go through when they should call which number. we often send home a picture directory with fire on one side, the phone number for the fire department on the other; a thief on the second line, police station number opposite; and a sick person on the next line & the number for the ambulance opposite. we ask the parents to review this with the child from time to time. the class also reviews this during circle time throughout the year.

 

[morri]

In my preschool they were also taught. Also by a policeman who came round and gave some instructions . (like traffic security and the emergency numbers (In Germany 110 for police and 112 for fire brigade and emergency.)

 

[NuKe]

from what my mum tells me, I was taught to ring 999 when I was about 2. It definetly depends on the maturity of the child though. once mine is older, I think it'll be "if somebody won't wake up, or if there's a fire and you can't find an adult"