Identifying symptoms using the drawings of 4-7 year olds with cancer.
PURPOSE
Symptom burden in children with cancer who are less than 8 years old is not well understood. Our research focuses on identifying how to structure a self-report instrument for younger children. Our aim was to describe how children with cancer, aged 4-7 years, express their symptoms through drawings.


METHODS
Children were asked to make drawings of a day when they were "feeling bad or not good". Content of 18 children's drawings was analyzed.


RESULTS
Four themes were established: physical symptoms, emotions, location and miscellaneous. Most of the drawings illustrated specific symptoms important to this age group, while also facilitating our understanding of how children with cancer view their symptoms.


CONCLUSION
Having children draw pictures may help initiate communication regarding how they feel, and develop rapport between the interviewer and children.
['Hyslop|S|S|', 'Sung|L|L|', 'Stein|E|E|', 'Dupuis|L L|LL|', 'Spiegler|B|B|', 'Vettese|E|E|', 'Tomlinson|D|D|']
D000367:Age Factors D001154:Art D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D003142:Communication D004644:Emotions D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D009369:Neoplasms D063189:Symptom Assessment
Symptoms Drawing Cancer Self-report Methods Children less than 8 years