Teach Your Child to Dial 911 From a Mobile Phone
From time to time I get dizzy to the point where I think I might faint. (I did faint one day and my husband caught me in the air, the gallant dude that he is.) When it happened again a few weeks ago, and I was at home alone with my son, I knew it was time for him to know what to do if ever there was an emergency and he needed to call someone for help.
Up to this point, he knew that if he ever needed help, he would first knock on Mr. Randall’s neighboring house. If there is no answer, he should go to Ms. Patricia’s house (and so on, next door). But at the age of 8, with the basic knowledge of how to use a cell phone, I decided that he could learn how to call emergency services without getting too nervous.
When to call
First, talk to your child about the circumstances in which he or she might need to call 911. I explained this as any situation where someone is hurt or something terrible happens and there is no adult nearby to help.
Some of the examples we talked about were: there was a fire, someone was badly injured and couldn’t call on their own, someone had trouble breathing, or someone seemed to be asleep but couldn’t wake him up.
What to expect
Then we talked about who he would talk to on the phone (the operator who decides who to send to help). I explained that the operator will respond and first want to know what is wrong and where he is.
He remembered our home address, but if he is in a different location, he just needs to describe it as best he can (for example, a park across the street from the city pool). I told him that staying calm is more important than dialing a number very quickly.
How to call
Then I showed him how to actually make calls from my iPhone and my husband’s Android. There are slight differences from phone to phone, so if you don’t already know how to call emergency services from your locked home screen, you may need to look for specific instructions. Typically, you press the home or side button until the keyboard appears, press “emergency call,” dial 9-1-1, and then press the green phone button to call.
We don’t have a landline phone at home, but even if you do, it’s still a good idea to teach your child how to dial 911 from your mobile phone in case he ever needs to call when he is elsewhere.
Now that he knows the basics, I will periodically practice this with him to solidify the steps and hopefully make it more automatic for him.
What not to do
I also read some tips for teaching your child to type nine-one-one rather than nine-eleven. otherwise, they can get excited at the moment and endlessly search for the “11” button. I’m not sure I have ever heard anyone refer to 911 as nine-eleven, especially after 9/11, but I’ll mention that just in case.
Last but not least, be sure to reiterate that calling emergency services as a joke is not only never and never funny, but it can get you into a lot of trouble and postpone help for someone who really needs it.