Hospital stays and children. The two do not make a winning combination, but in the special needs world, they get together more often than anyone likes. Maybe that’s why specialneeds.com asked me to write a guest post about how to prepare a child with a hospital stay.
How to Prepare a Child for a Hospital Stay
In the online article, Preparing Your Child for a Hospital Stay, parents are advised to concentrate on these three areas:
- Providing a child with age appropriate details before the hospital stay.
- Allowing the child a realistic sense of control.
- Using soft language rather than hospital lingo, before going to the hospital and during the stay.
Of course, the article goes into greater detail. It gives guidelines for age appropriate details for children in these age groups: 0-2, 3-4, 5-11, and 12-18. It also provides examples of ways to allow a child realistic control, and shows how to translate hospital lingo into soft, or kid-friendly, language.
Hospitals and More in Different Dream Parenting
If you like what you read in the article about hospital stays at specialneeds.com, you might also like my book Different Dream Parenting: A Practical Guide to Parenting a Child with Special Needs. It contains 24 chapters of practical advice and resources on a variety of topics, from preparing for a hospital stay to passing along your faith and much, much more. (You can look at the table of contents on Different Dream Parenting’s Amazon page) or download the first chapter by clicking the “Buy the Book” tab above.
How Have You Prepared for a Child’s Hospital Stay?
Has your child (with or without special needs) been in the hospital? Were you able to prepare your child ahead of time for the experience? What successful strategies did you use? What resources do you recommend parents tap into? Leave a comment so more parents can prepare their kids for a hospital stay.
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