Client communication with peds is unique.
Infants
The youngest population 0-18 months tend to communicate with body language or coos and crying. With these clients the verbal communication mostly occurs with the parents. Consent is taken from the parents and the explanation of the treatment is given to the parents. However there still is a lot of communication that occurs between the physiotherapist and the baby. I have seen my preceptors coo and baby talk, pat backs, rub bellies and rattle toys for the youngest ones. It was kind of embarrassing the first time I had to communicate with a 2 month old client. I was all baby talk and cooing. But then I realized this is something that the Mom does on a daily basis and definitely nothing new to my preceptor. Also, as I am starting to handle a few more infants I have felt more comfortable in my handling skills and it almost seems like the babies can sense my increasing confidence. I guess maybe to them they just feel a bit more safe in a therapists arms who is holding them in the right way and with some amount of knowing what they are doing.
Toddlers
Often this group can understand what you are saying but are either too shy to respond or just can't form complex sentences or words. So in a way they are easier than the infants but not as straightforward as the pre-schoolers. Still they can let you know what they want fairly easily by making a fuss over an activity they are struggling with or having a terrible two moment because all they really want to do is read a book, not play some game with bean-bags or puzzles which you have put out for them. So far I have found that the parents are a big help in communicating with these guys as the parents have a lot of control over them and are in-tune with their child's unique ways of saying certain words.
Pre-Schoolers
I think these guys are my favorite to communicate with. Possibly because they understand jokes. And something that this placement has confirmed with me is that I like to tell jokes to kids and act silly! This group is also great because they can tell you what hurts or how they feel about things. They also love to tell stories and sing-songs. Maybe they are my favorite because they are the easiest to communicate with.
Non-Verbal
There have been some non-verbal kids that I have seen that you would expect to have a higher level of communication. A lot of these children have been introduced to signs. Although I don't always know the signs for things so sometimes what I am trying to say gets lost in inaccurate hand gestures that I have tried to copy from a parent or therapist. If I had more time with theses clients and they were on my case-load I would make every effort to learn the language to communicate better.
In conclusion....
Communication is vital to any client therapist relationship. With the 0-5 population its important to use communication how you would with any other client, especially to build rapport with them. I find the best way to get children to open up to you is to get to their level. Communicate with things that interest them and are a big part of their life. I feel like this might be a really obvious thing to state and reflect on, but it is important to realize that when you are working with children you need to get on their level to not only discover what interest them, but also to find out what they are scared or tentative about and address those things to make them more at ease with the treatment session. And if this means cooing and baby talking or singing "row, row, row your boat" then that is what I am going to do because I want to connect with the client.
Infants
The youngest population 0-18 months tend to communicate with body language or coos and crying. With these clients the verbal communication mostly occurs with the parents. Consent is taken from the parents and the explanation of the treatment is given to the parents. However there still is a lot of communication that occurs between the physiotherapist and the baby. I have seen my preceptors coo and baby talk, pat backs, rub bellies and rattle toys for the youngest ones. It was kind of embarrassing the first time I had to communicate with a 2 month old client. I was all baby talk and cooing. But then I realized this is something that the Mom does on a daily basis and definitely nothing new to my preceptor. Also, as I am starting to handle a few more infants I have felt more comfortable in my handling skills and it almost seems like the babies can sense my increasing confidence. I guess maybe to them they just feel a bit more safe in a therapists arms who is holding them in the right way and with some amount of knowing what they are doing.
Toddlers
Often this group can understand what you are saying but are either too shy to respond or just can't form complex sentences or words. So in a way they are easier than the infants but not as straightforward as the pre-schoolers. Still they can let you know what they want fairly easily by making a fuss over an activity they are struggling with or having a terrible two moment because all they really want to do is read a book, not play some game with bean-bags or puzzles which you have put out for them. So far I have found that the parents are a big help in communicating with these guys as the parents have a lot of control over them and are in-tune with their child's unique ways of saying certain words.
Pre-Schoolers
I think these guys are my favorite to communicate with. Possibly because they understand jokes. And something that this placement has confirmed with me is that I like to tell jokes to kids and act silly! This group is also great because they can tell you what hurts or how they feel about things. They also love to tell stories and sing-songs. Maybe they are my favorite because they are the easiest to communicate with.
Non-Verbal
There have been some non-verbal kids that I have seen that you would expect to have a higher level of communication. A lot of these children have been introduced to signs. Although I don't always know the signs for things so sometimes what I am trying to say gets lost in inaccurate hand gestures that I have tried to copy from a parent or therapist. If I had more time with theses clients and they were on my case-load I would make every effort to learn the language to communicate better.
In conclusion....
Communication is vital to any client therapist relationship. With the 0-5 population its important to use communication how you would with any other client, especially to build rapport with them. I find the best way to get children to open up to you is to get to their level. Communicate with things that interest them and are a big part of their life. I feel like this might be a really obvious thing to state and reflect on, but it is important to realize that when you are working with children you need to get on their level to not only discover what interest them, but also to find out what they are scared or tentative about and address those things to make them more at ease with the treatment session. And if this means cooing and baby talking or singing "row, row, row your boat" then that is what I am going to do because I want to connect with the client.
When you talk about being on their level, do you mean physically as well? I think it is something that might help to alleviate potential intimidation. I try to do it teaching too, to crouch beside a desk or pull up a chair if feasible so I am not standing over a student.
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