The first thing to remember is that children are not merely “little adults.” They respond differently in almost every way to almost everything you do. It all begins at the first meeting. Stay with me here: shrink down to about 4 feet tall – doesn’t everything seem so much more imposing all of a sudden? Maybe even a little scary … Now walk about your neighborhood at this height: people going about their business as normal, barely noticing you as they rush on by. Now imagine you are attending a hospital appointment because someone noticed you aren’t quite the same as other kids your age … and a strange adult bursts into the room and begins talking. Now imagine you are the adult walking into that room – what do you do? Even if they have seen many clinicians before you, when you first meet that child you must make a good impression, gain trust and settle nerves (that also applies to the parent/carer attending with the child).

I’m going to ask you to use your imagination again now. You are working full time (not as a health professional, as something else) to pay the bills as we all do throughout our life. You also have a 2-year-old child in whom the health visitor has spotted suspicious symptoms and so has referred you to a pediatrician. You have no idea what the implications are, what the possible conditions are, etc.; you just know that your precious child could be seriously ill. You attend the appointment on Monday afternoon, taking time off work, and the consultant refers your child for further assessment/investigations which could include speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, blood tests, audiologist, optician, dietician, etc. All of these appointments you have to attend for the sake of your child’s health. Children are usually seen by myriad professionals, for good reason, but the burden on the parents is immense – please consider this. Many centers now employ an integrated appointment to reduce the number of visits but you could still ease the load slightly by encouraging home treatment by the parents/carers or synchronizing physio appointments with other health providers.