Children's memories about events relating to treatment for eye cancer : influence of age at loss of eye

Norgate, SH; Littleton, K

Abstract

Treatment for Retinoblastoma frequently involves removal of at least one eye in the first five years. Variation in age of treatment leads to the assumption that children’s later verbal accessibility of early traumatic memories may vary, with some children having less opportunity to make sense of their condition. Video-recordings were made of 17 children who had either undergone enucleation before 24 months (n=8) or after 24 months (n=9) involved in ‘hospital play’ using props designed to elicit talk about ‘eyes’. The hypothesis that a larger number of verbalizations about medical procedures would occur in children enucleated after 24 months than before 24 months was supported. Children enucleated after 24 months engaged in significantly more talk about enucleation and/or examination under anaesthetic whereas none of the children enucleated in infancy talked about these medical events. The outcome supports the view that there is a transition around 24 months in the extent to which children can have verbal access to previous traumatic memories. The design of interventions needs to take into account that children enucleated in infancy have less opportunity for later verbal access to early memories of traumatic events than those treated later, leading to possible misconceptions about their own condition.

Citation

Norgate, S., & Littleton, K. (2012). Children's memories about events relating to treatment for eye cancer : influence of age at loss of eye. Infant Mental Health Journal, 32(5), 563-577. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20309

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2011
• Journal: Infant Mental Health Journal
• Print ISSN: 0163-9641
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 563-577
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20309
• Keywords: Retinoblastoma Children Cancer Memories
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20309
• Related Public URLs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-0355
• Additional Information: References : American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual (4th edition). Washington, DC: APA. Bar-Haim Y., Fox N., VanMeenan K.M., & Marshall, P.J. (2004). Children’s narratives and patterns of cardiac reactivity. Developmental Psychobiology, 55, 1061-1068. Bauer, P.J., Van Abbema, D.L., Wiebe, S.A., Strand Cary, M.S., Phill, C., & Burch, M.M. (2004). Props, not Pictures, are Worth a Thousand Words: Verbal Accessibility of Early Memories under Different Conditions of Contextual Support. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 373 – 392. Eacott, M.J. & Crawley, R.A. (1999). Childhood Amnesia: On Answering Questions About Very Early Life Events. Memory, 7(3), 279 – 292. Ek, U. (2000). Emotional reactions in parents and children after diagnosis and treatment of a malignant tumour in the eye. Child: Care, Health and Development, 26 (5), 415-428. Gaensbauer, T.J. (2002). Representations of Trauma in Infancy: Clinical And Theoretical Implications for the Understanding of Early Memory. Infant Mental Health Journal, 23 (3), 259 – 277. Goddard, A.G., Kingston J.E., & Hungerford J.L., (1999). Delay in diagnosis of retinoblastoma: risk factors and treatment outcome. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 83: 1320 – 1323. Goodman, G.S., Quas, J.A., Batterman-Faunce, J.M., Riddlesberger, M.M. & Kuhn, J. (1997). Children’s Reactions to and Memory for a Stressful Event: Influences of Age, Anatomical Dolls, Knowledge, and Parental Attachment. Applied Developmental Science, 1, (2), 54-75. Kingston, J.E. (2000). Understanding Retinoblastoma, publication produced by The Retinoblastoma Society (U.K.). MacCarthy, A., Draper, G.J., Steliarova-Foucher, E., & Kingston, J.E. (2006). Retinoblastoma incidence and survival in European Children (1978 – 1997). Report from the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System project. European Journal of Cancer, 42, 2092 – 2102. McElwain, N.L. & Volling, B.L. (2005). Preschool Children’s Interactions with Friends and Older Siblings: Relationship Specificity and Joint Contributions to Problem Behaviour. Journal of Family Psychology, 19, 4, 486 – 496. Office for National Statistics (UK). (2000). Standard Occupational Classification, Volume 1. HMSO. O’Neill, D.K. (2007). The Language Use Inventory for Young Children: A Parent-Report Measure of Pragmatic Language Development for 18- to 47-Month-Old Children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Vol. 50, 214 – 228. Peterson, C., McDermott Sales, J., Rees, M., & Fivush, R. (2007) Parent-Child Talk and Children’s Memory for Stressful Events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21: 1057 – 1075. Peterson, C. & Parsons, B. (2005). Interviewing former 1- and 2- Year Olds About Medical Emergencies 5 Years Later. Law and Human Behaviour, Vol. 29, No. 6, 743 – 754. Peterson, C. & Rideout, R., (1998). Memory for Medical Emergencies Experienced by 1- and 2-Year-Olds. Developmental Psychology, Vol. 34, No. 5, 1059-1072. Sanders, B.M., Draper, G.J., Kingston, J.E. (1988). Retinoblastoma in Great Britain 1969-80: incidence, treatment, and survival. British Journal Ophthalmology, 72(8), 576-583. Sant, M., Capocaccia R., Badioni ,V., EUROCARE Working Group. (2001) Survival for Retinoblastoma in Europe. European Journal of Cancer, 37, 6, 730-735. Simcock, G., & Hayne, H. (2002). Breaking the Barrier? Children Fail to Translate Their Preverbal Memories Into Language. Psychological Science, 13, 3, 225 – 231. Solter, A. (2008). A 2-year-old Child’s Memory of Hospitalization During Early Infancy. Infant and Child Development, 17, 593 – 605. Terr L. (1988). What happens to early memories of trauma? A study of twenty children under age five at the time of documented traumatic events. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(1), 96-104. Wang, Q. (2003). Infantile Amnesia Reconsidered: A Cross Cultural Analysis. Memory, 11 (1), 65-80.; Funders : Childhood Eye Cancer Trust;The Open University (UK)