Our child life specialists work with pediatric patients to try to keep life as normal as possible for children while at the hospital. By teaching appropriate coping techniques, child life specialists provide education, procedure preparation, and even play with the children.

How Can a Child Life Specialist Help My Child?

Working with other pediatric caregivers, child life specialists work to meet the developmental and emotional needs of each child and family. They provide resources and information for parents. A child life specialist can help in the following ways:

  • They can help ease a child's anxiety, nervousness, and fear by teaching healthy expression of feelings, and play activities.
  • They can help a child understand medical procedures in child-friendly terms, and encourage cooperation.
  • They can provide distraction and breathing techniques to help with non-medicinal pain management.
  • They can help children and families understand their roles in the treatment and healing process.
  • They can assist the child's siblings cope with the experiences in the hospital.
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Child Life Practicum

Our program provides students with opportunities to learn about children’s reactions to hospitalization, encourages the development of observation skills with individuals and groups, provides a supportive environment to integrate theory into clinical practice, enhances the student’s experience with planning activities, and helps students to develop professional communication skills.