On her personal Facebook page, Ms. Trang Jena Nguyen shared a clip of her 4-year-old daughter playing a game of feeding dolls. When she saw that the doll seemed to be “choked with food”, the girl immediately turned the doll over to make first aid gesture. Although it’s just a game, the girl’s quick and precise action makes viewers surprised and excited. This is thanks to the fact that the child has attended a first aid training class from the age of 5-6 months.
Ms. Trang Jena Nguyen is the co-founder and deputy director of Survival Skills Vietnam (SSVN) that provides first aid and survival skills training classes. The class is directly taught by Mr. Tony Coffey ey – a first aid and quick response specialist from the Sydney Rescue Association and the New South Wales State Rescue Academy (Australia). SSVN not only organizes classes for adults but also children to practice first aid for victims experiencing incidents such as unconsciousness, blood loss, foreign body choking, burns, dog bites, broken arm, electric shock, drowning, insect bites…
In 2018, the case of the Thai children’s soccer team stuck for 18 days in a cave caused a stir in public. One of the things that amazes the world is that 12 children aged 11-16 and their 25-year-old coach survived for dozens of days in conditions of caves filled with water, darkness, coldness, insects, no air or food… but they were still persisted and mentally stable until saved. The above story is also a testament to the importance of teaching life skills for children.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese children are lacking self-protection skills. The number of emergency cases for children choking on foreign bodies is always high, many primary school children suffer from electric shock, many students drown because they can’t swim… In fact, parents often prevent them when they see their children ” foolishly playing around” but rarely instruct and explain in detail about the risks and how to handle bad situations. Only banning by command makes children curious and want to try again without receiving any skill lessons.
In recent years, teaching life skills to children and students has received more focus. Some international and private kindergartens train different skills for children such as swimming, opening common door locks to escape fire, dealing with strays and strangers, asking for help in an emergency… Life skills have also been taught in public schools. For example, teaching swimming for all students has become a goal of the education sector.
However, in many places, the teaching of these skills is still confrontational and formal. There are still classes that teach life skills through… books, students do not have the chance to practice so it’s difficult for them to learn the skills.
Since many tragic accidents have happened to children before, it is time to re-realize the importance of teaching life skills to children, right from the preschool age. Educators around the world believe that, in the first years of life, the formation of life skills for children is more important than academic achievement in the classroom.
Parents also have to learn how to “let them go” so that their children can be independent and have the chance to explore nature and learn to confront the dangers in life. Of course, along with that, parents must step by step equip their children with knowledge and life skills.
Parents always want to protect their children in a safe environment, but there are countless situations out of our control and we can’t always be around to protect. Therefore, the best way for children to live and overcome danger is to equip them with important survival skills in life.
Life skills are the “vaccine” for children in a world full of changes and uncertainties. Life skills also help children confidently handle all situations, know how to protect themselves, protect people around them, minimize the number of accidents and their consequences.
Source: Phuong Thanh – Phụ nữ online
