Bravery training: an approach to desensitizing young children to fears encountered in the hospital setting.
A behavioral modeling and reinforcement procedure for "bravery training" is presented for assisting young children to cope with fears encountered in a hospital setting. Its successful application is described with two young language-impaired children on an inpatient rehabilitation unit. One child was a seven-year-old boy with giant cell astrocytoma whose fearfulness of radiation treatment necessitated sedating him during the procedure; the other was a five-year-old boy with seizure disorder whose fearfulness of feedings through a stomach tube necessitated restraining him during feedings. Parent training is provided in the model as a way to assist children to generalize the coping skills to other relevant situations. The puppet bravery training model is offered as a positive supportive procedure that can help prepare even language-impaired children to cope with fears in the hospital while enabling health care providers to proceed with necessary therapies.
Hawkins
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Psychology Department, Oregon Rehabilitation Center, Sacred Heart General Hospital, Eugene 97401.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003887:Desensitization, Psychologic; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000523:psychology; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000523:psychology