Ability of 3- to 5-year-old children to use simplified self-report measures of pain intensity.

Little is known about self-report pain intensity scales best suited for young children. We tested the ability of preschool children to use two simplified scales (concrete ordinal and faces). Three- to 5-year-olds ( = 123) were asked to make binary discriminations ('less' vs 'more' pain) between response options using the Simplified Faces Pain Scale and Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale and to complete a seriation task.