Doctors and Nurses and Therapists, Oh My!
When a child is hospitalized, the medical environment and all the new people that will interact with that child can be overwhelming. Every new face is someone that child has to get to know and trust. Any child life specialist knows that establishing rapport is important when providing support to a child and family as is helping the child feel more comfortable in the hospital. Here are a couple of activities that could be helpful in breaking the ice and normalizing the environ
X-ray play
Expressive arts activities are a great way for a child to process a medical experience from a safe distance and can provide the adult the opportunity to talk about what that experience was like for that child and clear up any misconceptions that the child may have. Allowing for the manipulation of medical materials provides opportunity for the normalization of the materials and the act of gluing, coloring, cutting, etc., can give the child a sense of control and mastery over
All Good Things
“I had a horrible day!” Ugh. Not those words again. My first grade daughter has been having the kind of days that made that one kid in that book want to move to Australia. Kids are bound to have bad days and goodness knows so are adults but this “horrible day” statement was happening more often than not. If this sounds familiar to you and you aren’t sure what to do, read on. First things first, it’s important to always validate what your child is feeling. Empathic responses s
