In the recent past, every Saturday (or Sunday if we are busy on Saturday), I began spending time with my two small children, running drills to practice emergency calls. They would sit playing and I would then shout some emergency scenario at them, for example 'the neighbour's house is on fire'. The children would then agree which one would call the emergency services. He/she would dial 999/911/112 and ask 'say practice! fire practice fire! practice fire!'. They would then give the name and address and any other info they deemed useful.
To test the children's understanding of what was an emergency and what wasn't, the nature of the scenario would change. But each time they would play out the scenario right to the end before any analysis and feedback was offered. The advantage of this approach is that the emergency services can offer immediate feedback.
So, for example, when I shouted that Granny's teeth had fallen down the toilet and the children decided to dial 999/911/112, I sat proudly and watched them learn from an angry operator that this was not, in fact, a real emergency.
With the advent of twitter I was able to dream up more radical scenarios, such as the recent train derailment & explosion in the states, which thankfully the children correctly identified as an emergency and called 999/911/112. It wasn't their fault the foreign operator didn't recognise the word 'practice' and thus we should have a good case in court against the railway operator's claim for damages.
Equally it is hardly our fault that one of our training calls cased a delay in processing another emergency call. They should have more lines in use and I am sure the Judge will understand that sometimes the kids forget the word 'practice'.
This week we had even better training when the authorities called to our home to query our regular 'practice' calls. I decided that in the event of a war or other emergency it would be advantageous to have my middle-eastern born spouse practice talking the blame for some elaborate hoax. This would give them useful experience of incarceration in a western country and, importantly, the family good experience of a more spartan existence.
This practice call on the emergency number is a truly wonderful facility and everyone should do it every day. No one seems to mind and of course there is simply no other possible way to teach children how to do a 999/911/112 call.
* NB the above may not be completely true and may lean toward satire.
Last edited by missterrible; 30th May 2013 at 14:43.