The Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale for Children

Abstract

A scale for the measurement of hypnotic responsiveness in children was constructed with norms provided by testing normal children ages 3 to 16. The test as constructed correlated .67 with SHSS:A, slightly modified in wording to be appropriate for use with children. Because it was designed for clinical use, items were selected such as visual and auditory TV hallucinations, a dream within hypnosis, age regression, and a posthypnotic suggestion to reenter hypnosis — all items later useful in therapy if the child was responsive to them. In the very young child an induction technique using the imagination of familiar experience, with eye closure permitted but not required, proved more satisfactory than the usual eye closure/relaxation induction.