Psychology and management of children's behavior
Category: Pediatric Dentistry
Instructor(s): Yasmi O Crystal, Olga Tsarkova, Juan Fernando Yepes, Anup Panda, Figen Seymen
Course structure: Lessons: 8 total (7 lessons + 1 free) | Duration: 11 h 26 min
Course overview
Online course on child psychology and behavior management.
Training consists of 4 blocks:
– Child psychology. Verbal and non-verbal communication
– Pharmacological methods of management
– Psychology of communication "PARENT - DOCTOR"
– Treatment of children with psychological peculiarity: anxiety and depression.
The course is created for all doctors who work with children and teenagers.
What you will learn
- Apply age-appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication techniques to improve child cooperation during dental visits.
- Select and document individualized non-pharmacological behavior management strategies, including SADE and desensitization.
- Assess indications and safety considerations for pharmacological options, nitrous oxide, sedation, and general anesthesia.
- Recognize signs of anxiety and depression in pediatric patients and apply communication-based mitigation and referral principles.
Course lessons
Lesson 1. Non pharmacological behavior management
– Behavior management: basic principles
– Scientific foundations for the management of child behavior
– Factors of poor communication of the child: indications and contraindications for non-pharmacological methods
– The influence of parents and parenting style: the relationship with the behavior of the child
– Dental team: aspects of successful communication
– Basic and advanced non-pharmacological methods of behavior management:
- communication and communication guidance (appropriate to age)
- positive pre-visit imagery
- direct observation
- tell-show-do
- ask-tell-ask
- voice control
- non-verbal communication
- positive reinforcement and descriptive praise
- distraction
- memory restructuring
- desensitization to dental conditions
- enhancing control.
– Documentation of admission and individualization of the treatment plan
– Sensory-adapted dental environment (SADE technique)
– Animal-assisted Therapy (AAT)
– Picture exchange communication system (PECS)
– A technique of protective stabilization.
Lesson 2. Pharmacological behavior management. Introductory lesson
– Goals and indications for general anesthesia:
- Age and weight of the child
- Health status
- Amount of tretment
- Cooperation
- Parental preferences.
– Nitrous oxide: clinical effect, indications and safety of use
– Contraindications for nitrous oxide
– Sedation levels: characteristics and benefits of moderate sedation
– Specific pharmacological agents in pediatric dentistry, features and details of use:
- Midazolam
- Triazolam
- Flumazenil
- Hydroxyzine
- Diphenylhydramine
- Drug combinations.
Lesson 3. Pharmacological behavior management
– Goals and indications for general anesthesia:
- Age and weight of the child
- Health status
- Amount of tretment
- Cooperation
- Parental preferences.
– Nitrous oxide: clinical effect, indications and safety of use
– Contraindications for nitrous oxide
– Sedation levels: characteristics and benefits of moderate sedation
– Specific pharmacological agents in pediatric dentistry, features and details of use:
- Midazolam
- Triazolam
- Flumazenil
- Hydroxyzine
- Diphenylhydramine
- Drug combinations.
– Scheme for selecting drugs by age
– Local anesthetics: interaction with general sedatives
– Levels of monitoring of the patient's condition
– Documentation of admission: child behavior, treatment and informed consent.
Lesson 4. Stages of reducing the time of dental treatment in children under general anesthesia
– Indications of treatment under general anesthesia
– Basic preparation principles of a treatment plan
– Tactics of management of the postoperative period
– Stages of treatment under general anesthesia:
- Consultation (doctor's stage and coordinator's stage)
- Organization of the treatment process
- Isolation of the working field.
– Treatment of dental caries and chronic pulpitis: a clinical example
– Procedures where you can save time
– Preparation stage: selection of the tip and burs
– Features of endodontic treatment under general anesthesia
– The process of waking up and communicating with patients after treatment.
Lesson 5. Dentist, child, parent: communication techniques
– Dental fear, anxiety and odontofobia: definition
– Factors of dental anxiety development:
- Age of the child
- Character traits
- Parental influence.
– Diagnosis of dental anxiety: the Frankl scale
– Prevention of anxiety: techniques
– Communication techniques with a small patient
– The 4 "S" principles by reducing triggers of stress
– Basic behavior guidance techniques
– The presence of parents during treatment: tactics
– Pharmacological techniques of behavior management: tasks and indications.
Lesson 6. Depression and anxiety in our patients: challenges and implications for the dental practitioner
– Anxiety and depression among children and adolescents
– Child's fears: norm and pathology
– Factors of development of anxiety and depression in children
– Depression: definition and diagnostic criteria
– Symptoms of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents
– Body dysmorphia syndrome
– Strategies and principles of treatment of anxiety and depression
– The role of digital technologies in the development of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents: cyberbullying
– 8 online factors that increase the propensity to suicide.
Lesson 7. NLP in Pediatric Dentistry
– The importance of NLP in pediatric dentistry
– 6 basic principles of NLP
– Communication mechanisms in NLP
– Sensory organs as a way of creating reality: representative patterns:
- Characteristics of the visual type of perception
- Characteristics of the auditory type of perception
- Characteristics of the kinaesthetic type of perception.
– 3 V communications: how to see and hear a child
– The technique of mirroring gestures
– The technique of repeating the child's breathing
– Verbal respiratory synchronization
– Effective communication: flexibility in thinking and behavior
– NLP Techniques:
- Anchoring technique
- The "High five" technique
- Reframing technique
- Swish pattern technique
- The "Loop Break" technique
- Pattern interrupt technique
- Technique of embedded commands
- The Zen mind trick.
– Deletion, generalization, distortion: language-meta-models and the Milton model
– Principles of basic communication when working with children
– Child's bad behavior: tactics.
Lesson 8. Conversational hypnosis in pediatric dentistry
– Hypnosis: myths and misunderstandings
– Conversational hypnosis: a scientifically based approach
– Overt and covert hypnosis: goals and indications for the use of hypnosis
– Hypnotic state: the ABS formula
– Conversational hypnosis techniques to induce trance:
- Interrupting the dialog
- Overlap realities
- Verbal confusion
- Vague sentences
- Basic hypnotic formula.
– Basic communication principles of working with children
– Words and their meaning in working with children. The Milton model.
