Scratches and bruises are an unavoidable part of childhood. But what's the best way for parents to respond to this 'everyday' pain?
Photo: befunky.com
Teaching children about pain when they're young can help them better respond to it when they're older, according to a new study from the University of South Australia.
Lead researcher Sarah Wallwork, a physiotherapist and clinical pain neuroscientist, thought she knew a bit about pain.
But when she had children, she couldn't find any recommendations for how to talk to kids about pain in a way that promotes resilience.
Her research team asked 18 international experts from a range of fields to outline the main things parents and caregivers can do to help a child's recovery from and resilience after 'everyday' pain.
Five key messages emerged:
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Teach children about pain - that it is our body's alarm system.
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Validate children's pain - ensure they feel safe, heard, and protected but don't make a fuss.
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Reassure children after an injury - let them know that their body will heal, and the pain will pass. (This could be a cuddle for younger kids)
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Support children's emotions - let them express themselves but encourage them to regulate. (Role-model empathy and help them connect to their own feelings)
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Involve children in their own recovery - encourage them to manage their pain (e.g. get a bandaid).
Children will respond very differently to the same injury, Sarah says, but often there's a gender influence - girls show more distress than boys and receive more reassurance from parents.
How a person experiences pain usually depends on context, too.
"If [a child is] distracted and playing with their friends they're more likely to move on and run off whereas if they're a little bit tired, a bit hungry, a bad day, they will have a very different response."
Showing children that they can have some control over their pain - and that how they feel on the inside can influence this - empowers them to actively engage with their own pain management, she says.
"Teaching people about how pain works can help them to manage pain and often reduces pain and how much it impacts their life."
Health professionals find it hard to challenge people's long-held belief that pain always corresponds to injury, which isn't correct, she says.
"We associate tissue damage with pain and therefore if we feel pain we assume there must be tissue damage. That is not always the case and they are often not related."
'Everyday' pain experiences are opportunities for parents to impart to children certain beliefs and behaviours around pain, even from an early age.
Sarah recommends parents are always mindful of how they're responding to and what they're saying about a minor injury.
"These are learning experiences for kids… when we talk to them and respond to them they're feeding off our emotional response and we're teaching them [how to behave]."
