Physiotherapy for children and infants

Abstract

Adult patients can say to themselves: ‘I understand that I am not in hospital for the rest of my life, that my family will visit, that the nasty things they are doing to me are for my own good.’ Young children do not have these resources of reasoning and may be overwhelmed by bewilderment, feelings of abandonment, uncertainty about the behaviour expected of them and sometimes the impression that they are being punished. Despite progress over the last decades in humanizing children’s experience in hospital, long-term emotional disturbance can still be caused. Children need to be listened to, believed and given some control over what is done to them. Teenagers in particular need autonomy because they are already resenting their illness and feel extra sensitive to the paternalistic environment that is inherent in many paediatric units.