Teaching your children about safety

Children should begin to be taught the importance of personal safety from a young age. Some of the very first safety advice you can teach children includes:

• How and when to phone the emergency services by dialling 111. Ensure your children can provide their name, address and telephone number if they need to dial 111.
• The importance of staying safe in the sun by covering up with sunblock, wearing a hat and finding shade.
• How to wash their hands and brush their teeth properly.
• Where it is safe to play and which areas are dangerous, such as driveways or in front of houses with open sections.
• The risk of fire and the importance of staying clear of fire and heaters (teaching them to stay at least one metre away can work well).
• The importance of not moving around with objects in their mouth, especially items such as a toothbrush, lollypop, or iceblock stick. If a child trips with something in their mouth they could choke or the object could become embedded in the back of their mouth.
• Recognising who is a stranger and the importance of not agreeing to any of their requests.

This article was written by Warren Rosser from St John.