Somebody has fallen
An adult you are with has fallen and is not answering you. Nobody else is around.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Not sure
Something has happened and you genuinely cannot tell whether it is serious.
What do you do?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Know your country’s emergency number. In the UK it is 999 or 112. In the US and Canada it is 911. Learn yours now, not when you need it.
Address first
The very first useful thing is where you are. If the call is cut off, help can still come.
Do not hang up
They will ask questions and tell you what to do. Stay on until they say you can go.
Not everything is 999
A cut finger, a broken window, being locked out — those are grown-up problems, not emergency-service problems. Emergency means somebody is badly hurt, or there is a fire, or somebody is in danger.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Emergency, or Not?
Sort each one.
Which of these need the emergency services?
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 2
What is the first thing to say on an emergency call?
Question 2 of 2
You called and now you are frightened. Can you hang up?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Say it out loud
- Say your full address including postcode, from memory.
- Say your emergency number.
- Practice the first sentence: where you are, then what has happened.
Why: The sentence has to be practiced, because in a real emergency nobody composes anything.
For a grown-up: Do a proper run-through with a switched-off phone. And check they can call from the lock screen, which most children have never tried.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Learn your emergency number now.
- Say where you are first.
- Stay on the phone. Not everything is an emergency — but if you are unsure, call.
For the grown-up
Children who have rehearsed this act; children who have only been told freeze. Ten minutes of practice — say the address, say what happened, stay on — is worth doing.
Address-first is what call handlers ask for and it is not intuitive. It is worth explaining why: a location means help can be sent even if the call fails.
Make sure they know the address and postcode by heart, and how to unlock and call from a locked phone. Both are commonly missing.