Give basic first aid

When someone’s hurt, be useful, not frozen.

What to learn

Handle common injuries calmly — cuts, burns, choking, and when to call for help — instead of panicking.

The problem it solves

In an emergency, not knowing what to do turns a manageable situation into a dangerous one.

How to teach it

Teach a child

Teach the basics hands-on: clean and cover a cut, cool a burn, the choking response, and — most important — when to call for help. Practice it as calm steps, not fear. A skill rehearsed in a quiet moment is available in a loud one.

Teach yourself

Learn the handful of responses that matter — bleeding, burns, choking, when to call for help — and practice them until they’re muscle memory. In an emergency you don’t rise to the occasion; you fall to your level of preparation.

Tactics that teach it

Rehearse the Hard Moment kid tool

Practice the tough moment before it’s live, so the response is ready.

Role-play the hard moment in advance — the peer pushing, the boundary to hold, the interview question — and hand them a few clean lines to reach for. A response practiced in calm is available under pressure; one invented in the moment usually isn’t.

Done when

Handles common injuries calmly and knows when to escalate to professional help.

In the framework

Care is sometimes literal: being ready to help a hurt person is love with its sleeves rolled up — the people-in-the-room principle turned into competence.

This lesson lives in Care — one of the four circles of Agency, the engine of everything you do. Read The People Close →

Track your progress on this lesson

Prefer paper? Print a two-week worksheet → to track it day by day on the counter.

More in Care

careClean up before the next thingRespect what’s shared; leave it better.carePut your toys awayLeave a space better than you found it — starting with your own.careSay sorry and make it right“Sorry” is the start, not the fix — then make it right.careNotice how others feelRead the room — other people have an inside, too.

Next in the Playbook

agencyTouch typingPut the keyboard on autopilot so your thinking runs free.epistemologyLook it up and check it“I’ll find out” beats “I think so” — go check.epistemologyWorld history basicsKnow the story of how we got here — it explains the now.

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