Background:

Paediatric dentists often report using positive reinforcement to encourage their young patients to show co-operative behaviour. For effective reinforcement to take place the reward should be salient to the individual. To date, there is little research into what reward a young patient will choose when attending the dentist.

Aim:

To identify what reward children between the age of 4–8 years will choose when attending the dentist, and to determine the extent of agreement between children and caregivers in reward choice.

Method:

Observational study. Fifty-two children from different age groups (4–5 years, 6–7 years and 8 years) attending a primary-care dental clinic were asked to choose between a range of different rewards. The caregiver attending with them was also asked to anticipate the child’s preferred choice.

Results:

There was no clear favourite reward for children from both genders and different age group. However, no child chose the ‘sticker’ reward that is traditionally given out at the dentist. Overall carers agreed with the child’s choice of toy on 18 occasions (34.6%), but there were significant differences across the age groups with carers of older children showing less agreement

Conclusion:

To ensure that rewards are salient, children should be given a choice of rewards when attending the dental clinic. Parents ability to predict their child’s preferred rewards decreases as the child ages.

Clinical relevance:

A child’s motivation to co-operate during dental treatment can be increased by offering a range of rewards. Asking children to choose their reward from a limited range will increase the saliency of the reward for the child.

中文翻译：

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孩子在牙医表现良好时更喜欢什么奖励？

 背景：

儿科牙医经常报告使用积极强化来鼓励年轻患者表现出合作行为。为了进行有效的强化，奖励应该对个人来说是显着的。迄今为止，关于年轻患者看牙医时会选择什么奖励的研究还很少。

 目的：

确定 4-8 岁儿童看牙医时会选择什么奖励，并确定儿童和看护者在奖励选择上的一致程度。

 方法：

观察性研究。来自不同年龄组（4-5 岁、6-7 岁和 8 岁）的 52 名儿童在初级保健牙科诊所就诊，被要求在一系列不同的奖励中进行选择。陪同他们的看护人员也被要求预测孩子的首选选择。

 结果：

对于不同性别和不同年龄段的孩子来说，没有明确最喜欢的奖励。然而，没有孩子选择传统上在牙医那里发放的“贴纸”奖励。总体而言，照顾者有 18 次同意孩子对玩具的选择（34.6%），但不同年龄组之间存在显着差异，年龄较大儿童的照顾者的同意程度较低

 结论：

为了确保奖励的显着性，孩子们在去牙科诊所就诊时应该有多种奖励选择。随着孩子年龄的增长，父母预测孩子喜欢的奖励的能力会下降。

 临床相关性：

通过提供一系列奖励可以提高孩子在牙科治疗期间合作的积极性。要求孩子从有限的范围中选择奖励会增加奖励对孩子的显着性。