Whether you are a parent or a teacher, it is extremely important to teach our children fire and security safety. In fact, there are many shocking statistics that show just how dangerous not teaching fire and security safety can be.
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Security – We might all know there is some kind of safety risks for kids, but did you know there were approximately 1.1 thousand child abduction offences reported by the police in England and Wales in 2019/20?
Fire – It is thought that 1 in every 4 fires in the UK is started by a child or a young person. More than half of these fires are started by children that were pre-schoolers and kindergartners, or nursery and reception aged kids. Fires started by children cause around 150 deaths and 1,000 injuries in the US every year.
As you can see, due to not knowing that fire and strangers can be dangerous, kids can be at risk of all kinds of hazards. Here are our top tips when it comes to teaching small children the importance of fire and security safety.
Lead by example
Children learn best when they can learn from your example. You cannot show your children what is safe and not safe without knowing this yourself. Take some time to read up on the relevant subject areas. You can make sure your home is fire and security safe with help from CCTV installers Newcastle, so that your child grows up seeing safety precautions, and absorbs the protocols over time.
Reduce risks
Identify any risks in your home that could be dangerous to a child if they were to accidentally investigate. This includes plug sockets, lighters, cupboards- anything that a child might stick their finger in, or think is a toy!
Turn it into a game
The best way to get a small child to engage with what you are saying is to make it interactive. One way you can do this is by turning fire and security safety into a game, rewarding them for successfully remembering how to use your fire escape, for example.
Use images
Another interactive way to engage young children is by using drawings, puzzles, and maps. By getting the child to focus on colouring in a fireman in, they are learning what a fireperson is, and allows you the opportunity to answer their questions about what they do and how they help.
Ask them to prove what they have learnt
Once you have started to teach small children fire and security safety, it is important to check in and see how much information they have actually absorbed. Every child is different so will learn at a different speed. Ask them questions after each section about how they would react in a certain scenario, allowing you to address any gaps in their retained knowledge.
It is vital that we pass down to our children the importance of fire and security safety, not only for their sake, but for the safety of those around them too. By following these top tips to help your children learn, you’ll be sure to feel a lot safer in no time.
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