Activity centers throughout the hospital encourage play that is therapeutic and revealing. These areas give children opportunities for self-expression, choice and control in an environment where they're not in control. Drawings of a huge bed and a tiny child, or of a syringe so big that the young artist tapes extra pages together, show the power and weight of their concerns. To ensure that children learn what they need to know in a way they can understand, child life specialists collaborate with nurses. They help to prepare youngsters for the procedures that await them, and often are at the child's side before, during and after these uncomfortable experiences.
Children tolerate procedures differently.
Keeping patients connected to their schools is another goal of child life specialists. Siblings of patients also benefit from support through a hospitalization and, in the worst case, a death. Our child life specialists will help to communicate with a sibling's teachers and classmates to explain what the child is experiencing and to help them cope. They also work with entire families on grief and bereavement issues. Each of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Child Life specialists are professionally trained and certified, with college degrees in child development, education or child life.