Before my appointment

The sheet

For your teenager to fill in before they see the doctor or nurse: what to say, what to ask, and who they want with them. A second page for you: how to step back, and what stays private.

For an appointment · A4, two pages · Two pages · PDF, 59 KB

How it helps

Seeing a doctor or nurse alone is a skill, and it’s easier for your child to learn with you nearby than all at once when they leave home. The first page helps them get ready: what they want to say, what they want to ask and who they’d like there. The second is for you: how to step back in stages, and what stays private.

How to use it

1. A few days before, give your child the first page to fill in, on their own or with you if they’d like. It’s theirs: don’t read it unless they show you.
2. Ask whether they want you there for all of it, part of it or none, and go with what they say.
3. Let them book it if they can, and take their page, or a photo of it, to the appointment.
4. Afterwards, ask how it went and let them tell you as much as they want. If your child tells you that someone is hurting them, that they are hurting themselves, or that they don’t want to be alive, stay calm, thank them, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day, using the routes at theparentbook.com/urgent-help.

How to get this sheet

This sheet comes with a subscription. It is also yours with its chapter, if that is the chapter you read free, or if a teacher or therapist sends it to you. School staff and therapists signed in to their shelf can print it too.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full, with its sheets. This one goes with When They Stop Talking to You.

Free to print

These are free to anyone, with nothing to sign up for.

• A plan for a bad dayTo fill in together · A4
• Before you ring the schoolFor a call or a meeting · A4
• What to say: school and friendsCards to cut out · A4, eight cards to cut
• Before the SENCo meetingFor a meeting · A4
• Three reports, side by sideFor a meeting · A4 landscape
• The return-to-school meetingFor a meeting · A4
• The move to secondary school, for a parents’ eveningFor a parents’ evening · A4, five pages
• The last half-hour before bedFor the fridge · A4
• The worry ladderTo fill in together · A4
• Before you see the GP about your childFor an appointment · A4, two sides
• A record of what happenedFor a call or a meeting · A4, two pages
• The people I can tellTo make together · A4, two pages

Every sheet, marked free or with a subscription, is at theparentbook.com/printables.