Abstract
The difficulty in assessing pain in children indicates the need for a specific look at the description of the pain. Considering aspects of cognitive and linguistic development is crucial for the interpretation of pain experience in children. The main point of this study was to identify pain descriptors present in the children's narratives which are undergoing cancer treatment and compare them with those present in an instrument for adults. This was a qualitative study conducted in an Oncohepatology Pediatric Center, from March to October of 2013. The sample consisted on 26 students, of both sexes, with an average age of 8 years and 7 months. The results indicate that regardless of age, the use of figurative reinforcements in oral communication is founded as a support in the description of the pain and shows the needing of the creation of assessment pain tools appropriated to each age, in order to facilitate the symbolic representations in children.
Keywords:
assessment of pain; child; McGill pain questionnaire; narrative