Barriers in communicating with children 

In a study done to get the opinions and the thoughts of young people, it was found that young people really wanted to have their opinions heard, but there were barriers for them to communicate. Some young people felt that they didn’t want to talk out loud or meet someone that they’d never met before to have these conversations. It was important for them to have their views heard without their parents overhearing because some of the young people said their parents already worry about them.

If you want to learn more about this topic, you can watch Rhiannon Joslin's lecture here:

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1. Use alternative methods of communication

In order to help young people express themselves more we can offer multiple methods of communication for example we can offer to see them face to face in hospital, face to face in their home, or we can use WhatsApp messenger so they didn’t have to talk at all or WhatsApp video call.

2. Use a timeline drawing

A timeline drawing is a form of visual communication where young people can express their feelings on a piece of paper. First part of the timeline we can ask them to tell about themselves at the start of their treatment for pain. They could describe, draw and color. Then we can tell them to write on the opposite end, where they can describe themselves at the end of an ideal treatment when they no longer need to come to hospital. Then we can ask them to join those two dots to show them what their journey has looked like, so far, 6 and then what it will look like into the future. And then along those timelines, we can work with them to say, what are the negative signs? What are the signs this just isn’t working or your treatment is not working? What changed in your life that made you think the treatment is not working? And then we ask them for positive signs. What’s the sign that this is working? And what has changed that you thought that this is working? Thus, we can help them to express more, and visually see their treatment journey through the timeline drawing.

3. Explain pain to them in a way they can understand 

Understanding why they are feeling pain will affect how they perceive the pain. Some of the ways we can explain pain to them is:
i)    Externalize the pain for example calling it ' the pain’
ii)    Use metaphors or storytelling
iii)    Use group education models
iv)    Use visual learning by using videos or books/ pictures

If you want to learn more about this topic, you can watch Rhiannon Joslin's lecture here:

Click here

If you want to learn some data about Epidemiology of Chronic Pain in Children, you can watch the following clip from Dr Rhiannon Joslin's lecture on Trust Me-Ed.

Sources:
1. Lecture 'Persistent pain in children’ by Dr Rhiannon Joslin