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September 1983, Vol 137, No. 9 >
Article | September 1983

Clinicians' Assessments of Children's Understanding of Illness FREE

Ellen C. Perrin, MD; James M. Perrin, MD
[+] Author Affiliations

Reprint requests to Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232 (Dr E. Perrin).


Am J Dis Child. 1983;137(9):874-878. doi:10.1001/archpedi.1983.02140350048012.
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• Optimal communication between providers of child health care and their patients depends on appropriate expectations of what the children can understand. Recently the developmental stages in children's understanding of the mechanisms of cause, prevention, and treatment of illness have been delineated. We studied the accuracy of clinicians' knowledge of these developmental stages. Pediatricians, nurses, and child development students were asked to estimate the age at which children made typical responses to five questions regarding illness mechanisms. Clinicians usually overestimated the age of younger children and underestimated the age of older children; they correctly estimated children's ages less than 40% of the time. Child health care providers might communicate more effectively with their patients if they became more familiar with typical stages in children's understanding of illness concepts.

(Am J Dis Child 1983;137:874-878)

REFERENCES

1 +
Childers P, Wimmer M:  The concept of death in early childhood . Child Dev 1971;;42:1299-1301.
2 +
Koocher GP:  Childhood, death, and cognitive development . Dev Psychol 1973;;9:369-375.
3 +
Elkind D:  The child's conception of prayer . Lumen Vitae 1967;;22:441-454.
4 +
Elkind D:  The child's conception of his religious denomination. II: The Catholic child . J Genet Psychol 1962;;101:185-193.
5 +
Laurendau M, Pinard A: Causal Thinking in the Child . New York, International Universities Press, 1962;.
6 +
Bernstein AC, Cowan PA:  Children's concepts of how people get babies . Child Dev 1975;;46:77-91.
7 +
Perrin EC, Gerrity PS:  There's a demon in your belly: Children's understanding of illness . Pediatrics 1981;;67:841-849.
8 +
Bibace R, Walsh M:  Development of children's concept of illness . Pediatrics 1980;;66: 912-917.
9 +
Snyder C, Eyres S, Barnard K:  New findings about mothers' antenatal expectations and their relationship to infant development . Matern Child Nurs J 1979;;4:354-357.
10 +
DeLissovoy V:  Child care by adolescent parents . Child Today 1973;;2:22-25.
11 +
DeLissovoy V:  High school marriages: A longitudinal study . J Marriage Fam 1973;;35:245-255.
12 +
Miller S, White N, Delgado M:  Adults' conceptions of children's cognitive abilities . Merrill-Palmer Q 1980;;26:135-151.
13 +
Coplan J:  Parental estimate of child's developmental level in a high-risk population . Am J Dis Child 1982;;136:101-104.
14 +
Shonkoff J, Dworkin PH, Leviton A, et al:  Primary care approaches to developmental disabilities . Pediatrics 1979;;64:506-514.
15 +
Dworkin PH, Shonkoff J, Leviton A, et al:  Training in developmental pediatrics: How practitioners perceive the gap . Am J Dis Child 1979;;133:709-712.
16 +
American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force: The Future of Pediatric Education . Evanston, Ill, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1978;.
17 +
Bierman J, Conner A, Vaage M, et al:  Pediatricians' assessments of the intelligence of 2-year-olds and their mental test scores . Pediatrics 1964;;34:680-690.
18 +
Korsch B, Cobb K, Ashe B:  Pediatricians' appraisals of patients' intelligence . Pediatrics 1961;;27:990-1003.
19 +
Pantell RH, Stewart TJ, Dias JK, et al:  Physician communication with children and parents . Pediatrics 1982;;70:396-401.
20 +
Turiel E:  Developmental processes in the child's moral thinking , in Mussen P, Langer J, Covington M (eds): New Directions in Developmental Psychology . New York, Holt Rinehart & Winston Inc, 1969;.
21 +
Rubin KH, Brown ID:  A life-span look at person perception and its relationship to communicative interaction . J Gerontol 1975;;30:461-468.
22 +
Eyler FD: Assessment and intervention with mothers and their premature newborns. Read before the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, San Francisco, March 15, 1979.
23 +
Anderson C: Informing mothers about the behavioral characteristics of their infants: Effects on mother-infant interaction. Read before the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, San Francisco, March 15,1979.
24 +
Broussard ER, Hartner MS:  Maternal perception of the neonate as related to development . Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 1970;;1:16.

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Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature

Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal

References

1 +
Childers P, Wimmer M:  The concept of death in early childhood . Child Dev 1971;;42:1299-1301.
2 +
Koocher GP:  Childhood, death, and cognitive development . Dev Psychol 1973;;9:369-375.
3 +
Elkind D:  The child's conception of prayer . Lumen Vitae 1967;;22:441-454.
4 +
Elkind D:  The child's conception of his religious denomination. II: The Catholic child . J Genet Psychol 1962;;101:185-193.
5 +
Laurendau M, Pinard A: Causal Thinking in the Child . New York, International Universities Press, 1962;.
6 +
Bernstein AC, Cowan PA:  Children's concepts of how people get babies . Child Dev 1975;;46:77-91.
7 +
Perrin EC, Gerrity PS:  There's a demon in your belly: Children's understanding of illness . Pediatrics 1981;;67:841-849.
8 +
Bibace R, Walsh M:  Development of children's concept of illness . Pediatrics 1980;;66: 912-917.
9 +
Snyder C, Eyres S, Barnard K:  New findings about mothers' antenatal expectations and their relationship to infant development . Matern Child Nurs J 1979;;4:354-357.
10 +
DeLissovoy V:  Child care by adolescent parents . Child Today 1973;;2:22-25.
11 +
DeLissovoy V:  High school marriages: A longitudinal study . J Marriage Fam 1973;;35:245-255.
12 +
Miller S, White N, Delgado M:  Adults' conceptions of children's cognitive abilities . Merrill-Palmer Q 1980;;26:135-151.
13 +
Coplan J:  Parental estimate of child's developmental level in a high-risk population . Am J Dis Child 1982;;136:101-104.
14 +
Shonkoff J, Dworkin PH, Leviton A, et al:  Primary care approaches to developmental disabilities . Pediatrics 1979;;64:506-514.
15 +
Dworkin PH, Shonkoff J, Leviton A, et al:  Training in developmental pediatrics: How practitioners perceive the gap . Am J Dis Child 1979;;133:709-712.
16 +
American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force: The Future of Pediatric Education . Evanston, Ill, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1978;.
17 +
Bierman J, Conner A, Vaage M, et al:  Pediatricians' assessments of the intelligence of 2-year-olds and their mental test scores . Pediatrics 1964;;34:680-690.
18 +
Korsch B, Cobb K, Ashe B:  Pediatricians' appraisals of patients' intelligence . Pediatrics 1961;;27:990-1003.
19 +
Pantell RH, Stewart TJ, Dias JK, et al:  Physician communication with children and parents . Pediatrics 1982;;70:396-401.
20 +
Turiel E:  Developmental processes in the child's moral thinking , in Mussen P, Langer J, Covington M (eds): New Directions in Developmental Psychology . New York, Holt Rinehart & Winston Inc, 1969;.
21 +
Rubin KH, Brown ID:  A life-span look at person perception and its relationship to communicative interaction . J Gerontol 1975;;30:461-468.
22 +
Eyler FD: Assessment and intervention with mothers and their premature newborns. Read before the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, San Francisco, March 15, 1979.
23 +
Anderson C: Informing mothers about the behavioral characteristics of their infants: Effects on mother-infant interaction. Read before the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, San Francisco, March 15,1979.
24 +
Broussard ER, Hartner MS:  Maternal perception of the neonate as related to development . Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 1970;;1:16.

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