Coping With Chronic Illness...activities For Children That Support, Empower, And Promote Creativity

Children facing a chronic illness endure tests

, procedures, exams, as well as long hours either in the healthcare facility or a clinic. Handing them strategies that are simple to use, engaging, and most importantly fun to do supports children's growth and development while also offering them control in an environment that offers them little or none. Teaching children with a chronic illness guided imagery or relaxation techniques offers them techniques to manage pain, anxiety, isolation, and boredom while using their greatest strength; their imagination.

Preschoolers enjoy active games that move their bodies. Teaching them progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) by engaging them in a game of Can You Do What I Do? asks them to repeat movements that a caregiver calls out. Asking young children to "wiggle like a worm" or "stand still like a tree", helps them to understand better how to tense and release their muscles. Using this technique when children are having their blood drawn, intramuscular injections, or feeling anxious about any upcoming procedure provide preschool age children with a tool for coping, building self-esteem and promoting mastery and control.

{School Age|Grade School|Elementary School children can comprehend meditation techniques by creating an Imagination Scrapbook. Children create images of a favorite place either real or imagined, by drawing in as much detail as possible providing the school age child an outlet during long hospitalizations or isolation due to treatment. Drawing on children's creativity offers them an outlet for expression as well as tool to empower them as they cope with a chronic illness.

Adolescents often keep feelings inside waiting for them to build up until they explode. Coping with a chronic illness only exacerbates this problem. Teaching body scanning is a way for teenagers to learn to search their own bodies for tension, emotions, and anxiety as well as where they hold it and how to release it. Getting teens to participate in their own care can be a challenge offering them a way to express fears, confusion, and stress may lead to better compliance, ownership and participation in their care.

Different ages coping with chronic illness need age appropriate strategies that are engaging, interactive, and fun to learn and do. Offering children activities that move, create, and play with the fundamentals of guided imagery teach children of a variety of ages and skills to take control of their own illness, while building self-esteem, promoting creativity, and empowering themselves to be active participants in their care.

by: Genevieve Lowry

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