Real-Life Communication
You're a day-care worker in a center where you and a co-worker supervise
25 children ranging in age from five to nine years old.
Two weeks ago,
a new child started coming to the center. This child is an insulin-dependent
diabetic, so you and your co-worker have been told what you need to know to
help this child eat correctly and remember his injections.
Some of
the kids have been asking you why Andrew has to have needles and why he can't
have cake with them.
You feel like you should have a proper explanation
for the children, but you're not really sure exactly what diabetes is yourself.
You decide to look it up in your medical encyclopedia. It says:
"Diabetes
occurs when the pancreas is unable to secrete enough insulin to maintain a
normal level of the sugar glucose in the blood.
"Insulin-dependent
diabetes is one type of diabetes which usually starts in childhood and is
characterized by severe insulin deficiency. Without insulin, the person could
suffer from heart failure or a coma.
"Insulin regulates the level and
utilization of blood sugar. The objective of diabetes treatment is to restore
blood glucose levels to normal.
"People with insulin-dependent diabetes
usually receive one or two daily injections of a slowly absorbed insulin."
Imagine
how you can put this into words that could be understood by five- to nine-year-olds.
Keep it short and simple and don't alarm the children.
Want to learn
more about safety in child-care settings? See:
Child-Care
Safety Tips
Internet :http://cultureofsafety.thesilverlining.com/childcare