How can parents and professionals teach fire safety and burn prevention to learners with a limited understanding of the dangers of fire and to those with complex communication needs? In this month’s blog, we are introducing a program specifically designed to help teach these life-saving concepts!
In honor of Fire Prevention Week 2022 and AAC Awareness Month, Pyramid Educational Consultants and the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation (AARBF), recently re
AARBF is a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to significantly reducing the number of burn injuries in California through prevention education and enhancing the quality of life of those affected by a burn injury. AARBF Board Member and School Psychologist, Alison Gresen Clark, EDS, NCSP, explains, “One of Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation’s primary goals is to eliminate all preventable burn injuries and fatalities. Teaching burn safety and fire prevention education to underserved and high-risk populations has been a priority of AARBF, but we did not yet have the tools to educate individuals with developmental disabilities, autism, and communication challenges. Partnering with Pyramid Education
Inspired by autism advocate Jacqueline Laurita, mother of a son with autism, Nicholas, the goal of the N.I.C.K. for Fire and Burn Safety program is to provide life-saving lessons and burn prevention education to learners with special needs, who are more vulnerable to preventable exposure to danger and are at higher risk for burn injuries. Based on her son’s positive experiences using PECS, Jacqueline suggested the collaboration between AARBF and Pyramid Education Consultants. Jacqueline described, “[Alison and AARBF] approached me wondering, how they could better teach children with special needs to learn burn prevention and fire safety. I know my son Nick is a visual learner and he has always worked well with PECS®.”
Fire safety education is the first line of defense against fire fatalities and injuries. The American Burn Association states that roughly 450,000 patients receive hospital and emergency room treatment for burns each year. This number does not include burn injuries treated in clinics, medical offices, or community health centers. Of these burn injuries, about 3,400 burn injury deaths occur each year in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, burns and fires are the third leading cause of death in the home.
Utilizing the safety messages from AARBF’s Firefighters in Safety Education (F.I.S.E.) program, the N.I.C.K. Fire and Burn Safety program incorporates a fire and burn 
The N.I.C.K. resources can be used to teach learners with limited understanding of fire safety to follow visual safety directions during an emergency, including get low and go; stop drop and roll; and cool a burn for 5 minutes. In this new 15-minute video we introduce the NICK for Fire & Burn Safety materials and show parents and professionals how to use them. 
To create the instructional video, we asked two educators and one of our Pyramid Consultants to test out the NICK Fire and Burn Safety visual resources with their learners and to record their lessons. Molly Lingo, M.Ed., BCBA, from the Sussex Consortium in Lewes, DE created interactive lessons that included lots of modeling and pretend play for her classroom of young learners with various communication needs and modalities.
Lauren Brennan, M.Ed., the Director of True ABAlities Learning Center in Cary, NC, told us about the two lessons she created to accompany the NICK materials for her classrooms of elementary to middle-school-aged students: “One activity is pretend play with building a campfire- the kids will draw cards and it will tell them different scenarios like they got a burn toasting marshmallows or their shirt caught on fire- they will have to respond appropriately. The second activity is a board game that will have them rolling color and number dice and moving along a path where they will draw a card and practice get low
Our Pyramid USA Consultant, Jill Waegenere, MA, CCC-SLP, practiced with her young sons at home. Jill described her experience with her 7 and 9-year-old children, saying, “The N.I.C.K. visuals were so helpful! The visual schedule was easy to assemble, the pictures were very clear, and were a great addition when explaining each step for Stop, Drop, and Roll to my kids. These products are a helpful tool for families and fire-fighters preparing children for fire safety at home.”
We hope that the addition of this new instructional video will help spread awareness of the N.I.C.K. for Fire and Burn Safety program and the life-saving messages included in the F.I.S.E. program by expanding communication opportunities for learners with complex communication needs to learn about fire safety and burn prevention.
To watch the N.I.C.K. for Fire & Burn Safety Instructional video for FREE visit www.pyramidonlinelearning.com or www.aarbf.org
To download the N.I.C.K. visual resources and instructional plans for FREE visit https://pecsusa.com/n-i-c-k-for-fire-and-burn-safety/
Written by Rayna Bondy, MSW
© Pyramid Educational Consultants, 2022