How stories help children understand pain | Integrated Learning Therapy

A recent study conducted by Dr Sarah Wallwork and published by the University of South Australia shows unexpected benefits for children of hearing and reading stories. Not only do they learn about the concept of pain, such stories help their emotional development, their development of empathy, and understanding of the norms of their socio-cultural environment.

The study looked at how parents and caregivers interact with children (aged 3-6) when looking at picture books that deal with characters being injured or otherwise hurt. Such situations often prompted some discussion about causes of pain and injury, what to do when one is injured or in pain and the need to feel empathy and show prosocial skills.

Dr. Wallwork says that the study highlights the value of shared reading experiences and how parents can support their children to learn about pain-related concepts during a critical developmental period.

“Through the storybooks’ characters we found parents and caregivers would pause to further explain what was happening within the pages.

“For example, when Zog the dragon (in Julia Donaldson’s book Zog) bumps his head and gets a bandage, the parent said ‘Whoopsie daisy, because dragons are still learning, aren’t they?’ which linked the injury with learning and that it was normal to make mistakes when you were learning.

“Similarly, when Zog flew into a tree, the parent said ‘Oh no! That would’ve hurt, wouldn’t it?’ which prompted the child to think about how painful or sore or hurt Zog might be. In this way, the parent is teaching the child about empathy, and appropriate responses.

“Conversely, when pain and injury were depicted in a light-hearted or unrealistic way, parents often responded in a way that showed they were entertained by the character’s misfortune. And while this may seem harmless, the action could inadvertently socialize children to think that accidents and injuries can be funny.

“Learning appropriate and empathetic responses to pain and injury in childhood are valuable for many reasons: they help children learn to understand that some pain is fleeting, that some injuries need the help of others, and that injury and pain are not always intertwined.

“Shared reading of picture books is an ideal way to talk about concepts around pain due to its didactic nature—as opposed to children’s television and movies, where children are often watching on their own and become passive recipients of information.

“Connecting the narrative and the characters’ experiences to a child’s own experiences makes these concepts more relatable for children.

“Essentially, we’re translating learning from the picture books into their own real-life. It all starts with the turn of a page.”

More information: Sarah B. Wallwork et al, Harnessing Children’s Picture Books to Socialize Children About Pain and Injury: A Qualitative Study, The Journal of Pain (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2024.03.016

Journal information: Journal of Pain

Provided by University of South Australia

Image supplied by Freepik

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.