--- title: Needles and brave faces — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Needles and brave faces», a lesson of the medicine course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Fear sends your body into alarm mode: fast heart, tight muscles, held breath, and a tense body feels pain more, so slow breathing out really does --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/) / Needles and brave faces # Needles and brave faces Lesson 32 of the medicine course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/1/) — Fear sends your body into alarm mode: fast heart, tight muscles, held breath, and a tense body feels pain more, so slow breathing out really does make a jab hurt less. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/2/) — Being brave doesn't mean not being scared or not crying; it means feeling scared and doing the hard thing anyway, so a boy who cries through his jab and still holds out his arm is brave. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/3/) — Nurses have a whole kit of tricks for this: numbing cream or cold spray, sitting on a parent's lap, blowing bubbles, a video, a hand to squeeze, and an honest answer to every question. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/4/) — Fear of needles is very common in both children and adults, and it isn't babyish. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/5/) — For most injections the pain is a quick sharp scratch lasting a few seconds, and friends' stories are often exaggerated. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/6/) — Numbing cream or cold spray, sitting on a parent's lap and distraction all make needles easier, and children can ask for them. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/7/) — Distraction, such as counting, looking at a picture, blowing bubbles or squeezing a hand, helps the brain pay less attention to pain, and looking away is not cheating. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/9/) — Some people faint at the sight of needles or blood because their blood pressure drops suddenly, and if you've fainted before you can ask to lie down. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/10/) — Crying is a natural way to show fear or pain and let out stress, and dentists and nurses see it every day. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/11/) — Telling a child «be a big boy» is meant to help, but it can make children feel they mustn't show feelings; boys can cry too. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/12/) — Knowing what will happen reduces fear, so children are allowed to ask what, why and how long before a treatment. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/13/) — Stickers and praise help children remember the good part of a hard experience, and they deserve praise even if they were scared. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/14/) — Little children screaming at jabs aren't being naughty, and a calm older brother or sister holding their hand can really help. - ← previous: [Why we sleep when ill](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/31-why-we-sleep-when-ill/) - next →: [Being in hospital, and a sick parent or grandparent](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/33-being-in-hospital-and-a-sick-parent-or-grandparent/) - ↑ back to [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/)