Body parts

Also called Body vocabulary, Where it hurts, Anatomy words

Head, tummy, tooth, foot, inside: the words for saying where it hurts, and why a body map on the board can be faster than any of them.

What it is

Body parts vocabulary is the words for the body: head, eye, ear, mouth, tooth, throat, neck, arm, hand, tummy, back, bottom, leg, knee, foot, skin, plus "inside" for pain that has no outside. With "hurt", "sore", "itchy" and "sick", it becomes the vocabulary a person needs to say where and how something is wrong.

It is the vocabulary of getting help. A person who can say "tooth" plus "hurt" gets a dentist. A person who cannot gets "behaviour", and sometimes years of it, before somebody finds the abscess.

Who it can help

Everyone, and urgently anyone whose pain is otherwise guessed at: children, people with a learning disability, people with dementia, people in hospital who cannot speak because of a tracheostomy or intensive care. It matters at the GP, at the dentist, at A&E and on the ward; see pain and communication and communication at the GP.

Words are not the only route and sometimes not the fastest. A picture of a body the person can point to (a body map) works for people who have no words at all, and a good paper body map should sit in every hospital passport.

How it works

Body part cards are drawn as a figure with the part highlighted, and that is the clue to the alternative: a single whole-body picture the person points to is a body map, and it is often the better tool because it needs no vocabulary and no scanning through a set. Use both.

The words combine with a small set of describers: hurt, sore, itchy, hot, cold, wet, broken, funny, inside, and with degree words: "a bit", "very", "worse". "Inside" is essential, because tummy ache, nausea and chest pain live nowhere the person can point to.

The Talk board covers the body within its feelings and needs sets, with "hurt" and "sick" beside "help", and any part word can be followed by a describer.

Getting started

This week, print a body map and put it with the board or on the wall. Model the words in ordinary care, not only in pain: "wash" plus "hand", "brush" plus "teeth", "cold" plus "feet".

Model "hurt" about yourself with a body word: "head" plus "hurt" when you have a headache. Then, when the person is clearly in pain, offer the map and the words and believe the answer.

Make sure "hurt", "sick" and "help" can be reached in one press from wherever the person normally is, and tell every carer what the card means.

Where to get help

For pain or illness, the NHS route is your GP, NHS 111, or 999 in an emergency; ask for reasonable adjustments for communication, which the NHS must provide under the Accessible Information Standard. Mencap publishes guidance on health and pain in people with a learning disability. Communication Matters for AAC vocabulary.