Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom May 25, 2020 (Issuewire.com) - North-east first aid training provider, Tumbles and Grumbles, has released a new book - via its Little Rescuers brand - to explain coronavirus and the ongoing social-distancing measures to young children. This is in addition to the launch of an online course, and a series of free resources to empower youngsters aged 3-11 years old with the skills, knowledge, and confidence that they would need to help others in an emergency situation.
Little Rescuers, which was founded by paramedic and mum-of-two, Caroline Davies, has spent the last five years teaching life-saving first aid skills to thousands of children within nurseries and primary schools. As the UK went into lockdown in March, Caroline re-purposed her courses into online materials that could be accessed by families who were suddenly spending much more time than usual at home - a place that statistics show a significant proportion of injuries and incidents occur.
Caroline commented: “Life has changed drastically for children over the last few months, and this has caused uncertainty for many of us. My daughter, six, started to get quite anxious about the changes that were happening. I began to write a story to help explain to her what was going on, and why we were not able to go to school, play with friends, and see grandparents.
“After reading the book to her, I shared it with some friends and family with young children of their own. The response was fantastic, and I then decided to release the story to my followers over on my Little Rescuers Facebook page.”
She added: “The book, ‘Grumbles and the invisible crown’, features two characters - Tumbles the tiger, who is a paramedic, and his best friend Grumbles, a gorilla who is always getting up to mischief. These characters are used already within the Little Rescuers first aid for children courses, which I have traditionally taught within pre- and primary school environments.”
Speaking about the work that Little Rescuers do within schools, Caroline commented: “When my little girl was around 18 months old, I would often find her playing with the resuscitation dolls that I used within my first aid courses for parents. She would show a huge amount of interest in pumping her hands on the dolls’ chest and giving them rescue breaths. It was amazing to watch, and it gave me the idea to start Little Rescuers.
“I did some research around teaching skills such as CPR to children and found that the out-of-hospital survival rates following a cardiac arrest in countries where first aid was taught in schools were higher - significantly higher - than here in the UK. I started working with early years practitioners across the region and developed a hands-on learning programme for children aged 3-11 years old.
“Since 2015, Little Rescuers has visited hundreds of schools - both here in the north-east, and further afield via our franchisee network - helping early years, Key Stage 1, and Key Stage 2 children understand how their bodies work, and what to do if they were ever in a situation where a friend or family member needed emergency medical assistance.”
She added: “The Covid-19 situation has meant that a lot of the work that we do within schools has had to stop. All across the country, children are spending more time at home, where we know that a lot of injuries and incidents take place.
“At times like this, it’s more important than ever that children know what to do in emergency situations - how to call for an ambulance, how to move somebody into the recovery position, how to deliver CPR when needed.
“Our Little Rescuers at home course uses fun, music, and experiential learning to teach these skills - and much more - to pre - and primary school children.”
Little Rescuers at home, and the ‘Grumbles and the invisible crown’ book are available to download now from www.tumblesandgrumbles.co.uk/little-rescuers-home.
Media Contact
Tumbles and Grumbles caroline@tumblesandgrumbles.co.uk 07715 810 483 17 Dockwray Square http://www.tumblesandgrumbles.co.uk
