What to Teach Your Preschooler About First Aid

You can’t teach a preschool age kid too much. They don’t know much about the world and their brains can only handle so much. This means that you need to deal with the basics and you need to prioritize what you can teach them. This might be some basic parts of language, reading, writing, and maybe even a little bit of math. It all depends on the child and the level of their ability. However, one thing that all children should learn about, regardless of their skill level or age is first aid. You might think that your preschooler can’t learn much about first aid. While this is true, they might be able to learn some of the basics that are the most important for anyone to learn. When you ask yourself what the most important part of first aid is, you might come to the conclusion that it is putting pressure on an open wound, elevating some part of the body, or performing CPR succesfully. All of these are very important parts of first aid, but let’s face it, if you are not some sort of medical professional, the really important part of what it means to know first aid is knowing that you need to get professional help fast. In most cases this is really simple. You just pick up a phone and call 911, informing the operator of your location and the nature of the emergency. Does doing this really require a great deal of skill? Could a preschooler do so?

Many preschoolers could be taught to dial 911 and express that there is some sort of serious problem with their mom or dad or friend. You could also teach your preschooler your address. One good way to teach this whole process is to do some sort of mock emergency where the preschooler has to pick up a play phone and call. Have the child explain over the phone what has happened and give the address. In many cases this is all that any of us can do in a major emergency. By teaching your preschooler how to dial 911 and explain the situation you will be teaching them one of the basic parts of first aid.
Of course you can teach preschoolers some other basics. Explain that they need to put pressure on a wound and that they need to keep any cuts or burns clean. Such basics can be taught, although a parent should take care of these things in most cases. Another very important thing to teach preschoolers is how to avoid situations in which they would need to use first aid training. You can’t teach a preschooler how to care for a serious burn or what to do with a broken bone, but you can teach them not to play with hot things or to play on stairs. You can explain that electrical outlets are dangerous, as well as sharp objects such as knives or scissors. This is especially important because with such a young child you want to avoid injuries more than teach them how to deal with the problem.

These are just a few suggestions about what you could teach a preschooler about first aid. You might also teach them where the first aid kit is in your home or other medical supplies. Use your imagination and you will be able to come up with important elements of first aid to teach them. Remember that 911 is the most important, but after that the more the better. After all, knowing is half the battle.