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Children can use
cartoon faces to tell doctors about mood
Children's psychological and emotional
problems can be hard to pick up, particularly when doctors rely on parents to tell them
how their kids are feeling. Listening to the patient - even if he is 5 years old - may be
a better approach, according to researchers.
'Even children as young as 5 years can
be an excellent source of information about themselves,' Dr. Beth G. Wildman and
colleagues report in the July issue of Archives of Family Medicine.
In a study of 107 children and their
mothers, the investigators found that kid-friendly questions uncovered psychological
problems in the children that doctors missed. The questionnaire given to the children
suggested that 20 youngsters had possible emotional problems, but physicians identified
only 3 of those children.
In the study, children were asked
questions regarding their daily lives - such as 'Not just today, but usually, how do you
and your parents get along?' They were allowed to choose one of three cartoon faces with
expressions that indicated 'great,' 'sort of OK,' and 'not good.' Mothers answered the
same questions. Wildman's team compared the children's responses with their mothers'
answers. They found that the responses from children and mothers on the child's daily
functioning were more often than not at odds with each other.
When the researchers compared the
responses with a standard psychological health measure called the Pediatric Symptom
Checklist, they found that the children's answers were a good indicator of potential
problems. 'The results of the present study support the utility of asking children about
their own daily functioning,' the authors conclude.
Many doctors do not routinely
investigate children's psychological health, and time and money may be two important
reasons, according to Wildman. 'I don't think that they believe screening is unimportant,'
she said, but doctors spend less than 15 minutes with a child, on average, and potential
psychological problems take a back seat to physical health. |
