Fire & Burn Safety Teaching
Preschoolers are between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. Erikson describes those children as being in the Initiative versus guilt phase. At this stage, children begin to recognize that the world is not all about them; they are less egocentric. Preschoolers learn how to mingle when parents bring them to an amusement park although they may be shy or intimidated by the other children at first. Parents should involve children in preparing healthy snacks such as fruit slices, carrot sticks, celery stuffed with peanut butter, and popcorn. As children approach the age of 5, they start to exploit rules to understand cause and effect.
Preschoolers should be encouraged to initiate activities, and parents can increase their confidence by praising them for their good work. This way they will move up to the next developmental stage. However if preschoolers feel that an initiation is not appreciated and do not get compliments for accomplishments they will interpret it as being bad and will develop a sense of guilt, which in turn will hold that child back later in life.
The ability for children to walk and do activities on their own does not mean that they do not need supervision. Between the ages of three and five years is a great time to teach children to learn what to do in case of fire, safety regulations for crossing the street, the obligation of riding in the back seat of the car, and how to assist when someone is hurt. What can parents do to provide safety for preschoolers? According to Potter and Perry (2007), toddlers and preschoolers “need constant supervision unless they are in a totally child-proofed area such as their bed.” To prevent accidents such as burns, parents should always turn the handle of the cookware in a way that children cannot grab. An even better way to prevent children from entering the kitchen is to have a secure door that children cannot reach to open. One must take fire safety precautions seriously when they have young children.
When my clinical professor told us that we would be having training for fire safety, I thought that it was a ludicrous idea. I believed that everyone knew what to do in case of a fire. On Saturday February 21 while I was at choir rehearsal, one of the buildings not too far from my church was on fire. We evacuated the church because we thought the fire was in the subway station which is right below the church. After the firefighters checked the station, they told us it was ok to continue with our rehearsal. This event made me looked forward to the American Red Cross Certification. On the day of the training professor Edinboro’s story about her daughter also changed my opinion of fire safety. After we talked about how the smoke detector sounds when the battery needs to be changed I was shocked because mine was doing a chirping noise for like a week. Once I got home I told my mom the reason that the smoke detector was making that noise, and she gave me money to buy the battery.
My group sat together and chose a date to accommodate everyone’s schedule. On the day we had to perform the fire and burn safety, April 14th, 2011, three people in my group had psyche class that morning. David bought coffee for all of us knowing that we would be tired. After class, David drove us to PS 10 511 7th avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11215. The group of children we educated in Fire and Burn Safety were 5 years of age. As I discussed before, at this age children have the abilities to understand safety precautions.
When we arrived at the school, we had to sign to sign at the security desk. We waited in the lobby while David, the captain of the group went to let the principal, Mr. Watson know that we had arrived. After we were assigned to a classroom, Irene our trainer gave the teacher a breakdown of what we were supposed to present. We asked the teacher to obtain the students’ attention so we could set up the table for our skits presentations.
The people that were part of the skit stayed hidden under the table and presented themselves after the presentation. Irene started the presentation by presenting herself and asked the students if they knew the mission of the American Red Cross. Surprisingly, most of the class had an idea of the services provided by the American Red Cross. Then she announced the skit on bath time which was presented by Me, Damon, and Irene. I was big bird, Damon was cookie monster and Irene was the adult Afterwards, Irene asked the students questions on what they should do before taking a bath. They all answered enthusiastically, “have a grown up check the bath water.”
The students were cooperative; they sat quietly and listened without interrupting the presentations. They raised their hands when they had a question. At the end of the skit presentations and after we showed them the pictures, we taught them the “when your clothes catch on fire” song, and ask them to sing along. They were still singing the song when we were leaving. After teaching them the song, I demonstrated stop, drop, and roll. Taking into consideration that children this age learn and retain by actually doing the activity; we asked for volunteer to demonstrate it.
I also demonstrated “crawling under the fire,” while the other team members hold the American Red Cross arc cloth. We gave every student the opportunity to demonstrate that one. They were eager to learn, and had many questions after we were done with all our presentation. We handed the certificates and coloring books to the teacher to distribute at the end of the day. The teacher shared a story with the students about his niece that got burned two weeks prior to our presentation.
This project taught me how important fire and burn safety is. I am leader of a youth group at my church. We work with children starting from 5 to 24 years old. One of my short term goals is to propose this teaching project to the president of the group over the summer. I will gather all the information that we need to train our “leaders in training” group and prepare them for this project. I am hoping that the American Red Cross will be willing to provide certification for them.
References
Hockenberry, M. & Wilson, D. (2005). Wong’s Essentials of Pediatric Nursing. (7th ed,) Canada: Mosby Elsevier.
Potter, P. & Perry, A. (2007). Basic Nursing: Essentials for Practice. (6th ed.) Canada: Mosby Elsevier.
