Listen to us! The voices of young children with pain!

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the experience of both acute and chronic pain among young children and children with cognitive impairments. While acute pain constitute children’s primary experience of pain, considerable numbers of young children also live with chronic pain. We will provide more details on PRIME C - an Irish-wide longitudinal cohort, prevalence study which found that a surprising 10% of children between 5-12 years of age self-reported that they have chronic pain. These findings will be related to the importance of intervening early in childhood to avoid disability due to chronic pain later in life. Throughout the chapter, the focus will be on innovative and creative techniques that we have available to give those who are the experts in their own pain experiences, i.e. the children themselves, a voice that can be heard; rather than just relying on parents to provide a proxy report of pain intensity and disability.