Effects of a preparatory education and play program on responses of young children to selected medical procedures

Includes bibliographical references.The effects of health information and play sessions on the nonverbal behavior of children ages four through nine were observed as the children participated in routine clinic procedures. It was hypothesized that children receiving health information and children receiving a combination of health information and a play session prior to the clinic procedures would demonstrate more positive and fewer negative behaviors than would the children receiving routine clinic care. Forty-seven children in three pediatric clinic sites were placed in one of the following three study conditions: those receiving routine clinic care, those receiving a 10-minute health information slide/audiotape session, and those receiving the slide/tape program plus a 10-minute play session. There were 19 children in the control condition, 15 in the health information only condition, and 13 in the health information and play condition. The nonverbal behavior of the children was recorded by nurse volunteers using a modified version of McCorkle's Nonverbal Behavior Worksheet. There were no significant differences in positive and negative behaviors by experimental group, sex, or age. Thus, the hypotheses of the study were not supported.M.S. (Master of Science