Playing and learning at home
Even though your young child feels unwell or in pain, you can do many things to help her learn and enjoy playing. Include other young siblings wherever possible so that the children learn to play in each other’s company. Here are a few ideas: -
In warm water
- Being in warm water soothes painful joints so give your child as many play times in the bath as they enjoy. When they are more comfortable physically, children naturally begin to enjoy exploring, testing and playing with things.
- Use a long non-slip mat in the bath for added safety (easily purchased from many high street shops). You can get sitting support seats to use in the bath but you cannot leave your child unattended.
- Use plastic household objects for bath time play - like sieves, ladles, wooden spoons, different sizes or shapes of plastic boxes, plastic icing sets.
- Seek out bath time toys from catalogues or markets. Give one at a time to the child to play with, keeping the others out of sight. When your child begins to get bored, change toys. Relatives will readily join in the search for new bath time toys.
- Play nursery rhyme tapes and do the actions with her, it is amazing how differently children join in when they don’t hurt.
- You can get rubberised foam letters to stick on the bath or tiles so she can play with letters and short words. You can also buy soap crayons for her to scribble with in the bath.
- Take this playtime outdoors in summer, possibly using washing up bowls but you may need to top up the warm water. Remember to keep children out of direct sun, use hats and sun creams.
Swimming
- Swimming and playing in warm water has many benefits for children with arthritis. They are also good opportunities for the whole family to play together.
- If you use public swimming pools, try to ensure that the child does not get cold.Take a towelling bathrobe or dressing gown for the child to wear as soon as you get out of the pool. The child stays warm then while you get your dry cloths to change into.
- Some good local hotels may have smaller, warmer pools that you could ask to use. Talk to the manager, people are generally willing to help once they understand why their facilities would help your child.
- An extra adult is the best thing to take swimming (!), especially useful when you get out and need to change the ill child into dry cloths promptly.
Summary of key points
- If you know the child really enjoys an activity, let her do it for short periods, but give her a prescribed dose of pain relief beforehand.
- Children love playing with finger or glove puppets – which exercise their hands without them noticing.
- Being in one position for any length of time will generally make them stiff and uncomfortable. Therefore when taking journeys of more than fortyfive minutes give them a dose of pain relief (following the directions on the bottle).
- Most children enjoy playing with artwork – get different bits of cloth, different kinds of paper (tissue paper, thick card, shiny papers, kitchen foil, baking paper etc). Cover the table or floor in newspaper, enjoy making pictures of things with your child using paper glue and all these different textures and colours. Try using different background, for example pieces of old wallpapers and enjoy experimenting.
Activities like this may not be your idea of fun, but relax and have a go. Your child will really benefit from and enjoy exploring new things – you may even get to enjoy it!
Issues about choosing a school, explaining the child’s condition to school staff, and securing support for the different needs of your child in school is described in full in chapter Eight
