Episode5 Segment 3 - What will I do when I get pain at school?

Fast Fact 1

Use pain
management
techniques
at school

Fast Fact 2

Maintain
hopefulness

When you get pain, it is important to use the pain management techniques that work for you, and use them when you first start to get pain or even before. For example, you could use some relaxation exercises or techniques such as distraction or even mindfulness (e.g. body-scanning, focussed breathing). The regular use of relaxation and distraction techniques at recess and in spare periods, even when no pain is present, may help to prevent flare-ups.

If you wish to learn more about these techniques you could go later to Episode 4 : Pain and Mind-Body Connection. These techniques are not disruptive to class mates or the teacher and can be used in the classroom, in sick bay, or in the library. No one will even know you are doing them. Early signs of pain may also be a reminder for you to use activity pacing techniques that you could learn more about in Episode 2 : Pain and Physical Activity.

What will I do when I get pain at school?

Instruction

Listed below are some distraction techniques that can be used when you have pain while you are at school. Click each technique to read more information.

Counting

You can count forwards or backwards. Think about counting in multiples, that way it is more of a challenge. This means you can count forward or backwards by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and so on. Counting back from 100 in 3s would be:

100…97…94…91…88…

Deep breathing

Breathe to relax your body. With each breath in and out let your body relax. Count to 4 on the way in, and 4 on the way out.

Bubbles

Bubble blowing is a great way to visualise your breathing. To create lots of small bubbles do short, sharp breaths. To create a few large bubbles, use long, slow, and controlled breaths.

You can make your own bubble mixture by clicking on the recipe link below

Bubble recipe

2 cups of water
½ cup dishwashing liquid
2 teaspoons of sugar
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl or plastic container

Alphabet challenge

Pick a letter of the alphabet and then a topic. Write a list of everything you can name starting with that letter. For example, the letter “L” and the topic of “Food”. Answers could include: lolly pop, lemon, lettuce, liquorish etc…

Listen to music

Chose music to help you move on to the next activity of your day. If your pain has increased, choose a slow tempo music genre to help you relax. For example, relaxation or classical music. Once you are on top of your pain maybe something more energetic such as jazz, pop, dance. Play lists mean you can quickly access appropriate songs.

Audio books

Reading can sometimes be challenging if your pain is quite high. You can borrow an audio book from your local library to listen to your favourite stories instead.

Reading

You can read things like short stories, magazine articles, cartoons, poems, plays, biographies, television or movie scripts, and novels. Visit your local library, or online book store to view the many options and topics available.

Tapping fingers

This is an activity where you touch your thumb to each finger in a variety of patterns. This technique is good to use when you are out and about.

Drawing/ Doodling

Use crayons, textas, pencils, pens, paints, to draw, illustrate, or doodle on blank or coloured paper or cardboard.

Craft or models

Make things from items around the house or from your local store. This could include things like a collage, a scrapbook, a holiday photo book, a model plane or car, a castle, a doll’s house, and so on.

Walking and talking

Walking can be helpful and calming. Walking with a friend or family member means you can also talk about a range of topics.

Constructing

Make various things with materials around the house or from your local store. You could make beaded jewellery, paper mache masks, Lego cities, paper models, cubby houses, and so on.

Apps

Download and use Apps on hand held electronic devices. Remember that this needs to be limited in time and used in appropriate situations.

TV/DVD

Watch a television show or DVD within time limits. Afterwards you could go for a walk or do some stretches.

Stress ball

Squeeze, rotate, and move the ball between both hands. Slowly moving between both your hands.

You can learn to make your own ball by clicking the link below.

Stress ball recipe

3 balloons
rice or bird seed
empty water bottle cut in half through the middle
scissors
Place the end of the balloon over the drinking part (small end) of the water bottle. Fill the bottle with ½ cup of rice or seed.
Push the rice or seed into the balloon by stretching the balloon and pushing it in. Once desired size is reached, remove the balloon from the bottle and tie the end. Snip off the end of the balloon. Cut the ends off the 2 remaining balloons and cut small holes in them. Place one balloon over the rice or seed filled balloon. Place the remaining balloon over the stress ball and you are finished and it is ready to use.

Writing

Sometimes it can be helpful to write things down. You could write a short story, a comic, a diary entry, an email, a card, a skit, or even jokes.

Puzzles

These come in many forms and can be found in newspapers, magazines, books, and online. You might like to try find-a-word, crossword, Upword, and Sudoku puzzles. You could also try a picture puzzle, where you create a large picture from tiny pieces. These can be found in toy and model stores.

Imagination walks

Picture yourself in a certain situation. Try to remember what happened using all of your senses. For example, if you were at the beach, you might hear the sound of the waves, smell the salty air, feel the warmth of the sand beneath your feet, see the swimmers between the flags, and taste the picnic you had for lunch.

Massage

Massaging your hands or your feet can help you relax.

What’s in my world?

Notice 5 things that you see, feel, hear, smell, taste around you.

User Activity

This activity is about choosing techniques that you can use at school when you have pain.

Instruction

From the activities above, type the distraction techniques you think you could use at school, into the box below. List them in order of your most preferred to least preferred. Once you have finished, print off the page

Distraction techniques I could use are:

Back

Return to the Pain and School Main menu

Confirm Email Details

Transcript: Segment 3 - What will I do when I get pain at school?

Alright let's start.

What I need you to do today, for this morning period only I want, year six I'm gunna give you some mathletics… So if you get pain at school it's important to remember all the strategies that you've been learning throughout the episodes within this series or through your private practitioner as well.

Those might include some breathing techniques any distraction techniques that you've learnt.

Might include counting numbers or looking around the room at different colours in the rooms.

It can be anything that works for you.

It doesn't have to be anything specific as long as it's something that takes your mind off the pain and helps you to stay in the classroom is the most important thing.

When I was in class and things were getting a bit tough with the pain levels I decided that I'd just try to focus more on the class and on the teacher to see what they were saying because I knew that if I started focusing on the pain I'd miss stuff, what the teacher was saying and it would be really hard to get back into the lesson.

So by focusing on the teacher I was able to leave the pain out of it as best I could.

Well what I do to get rid of my pain at school is I either focus on the work really hard because the work distracts me, especially if it's really hard.

Um… 'cause I have to figure it out and it distracts me from the pain because I'm figuring it out.

And I also um… sometimes I ask Mr Lewis if I can just read for a little and some- most of the time he says yes.

Is it writing- Is writing hurting today? A little.

A little bit? I'll get you the iPad, ok? Alright what I'll get you to do is you can push your slate board back Now you can do this on here… In Bayly's case, being an older student we have a little bit more communication between the teacher and that's slowly increasing as he gets older which is much much easier.

In todays case, he was having trouble with his wrist.

We've been doing a little bit of writing.

Possibly that stemmed from days before where it started to hurt so it's just a matter of taking that pencil out of his hand.

Getting him up, getting the blood circulating.

He handed out some sport cards for me, a few notes.

Then we got him back down onto his um… wedge seat which was much more comfortable for him.

Put the iPad in front of him and he was able to use it from there.

When I'm in class at school and my pain does get really bad I do do imagination walks sometimes and that distracts me for a bit.

And then hopefully the pain will of settled down.

If not, I just do it again or I try another distraction technique and it will eventually, you know become a little better and you'll be a lot more calmer.

If you need to take medications to school it's really important that you check with your school first about their policies.

Whether you're allowed to carry your medicines on you or if you need to go to the office and get your medicines from there.

Its important to keep your medications in a safe place if you are allowed to have them on you and make sure other kids don't get them.

It's also good to time your medications at breaks so you don't have to leave your class as often if if it was needed to take during class time.

The medical practitioner that prescribes your medication may need to provide a note for your schools so your school is aware of what medications that you're on.

Bit more relaxed? Yeah.

Good.