How can a child life specialist help my family?

Whether your child is in the hospital for a day, or a few months, the presence of a child life specialist can significantly impact their overall hospital experience, turning it from a challenging experience into a more positive one.

• Provide education and support, such as preparing kids for medical procedures, talking through and supporting families during and after procedures, providing distractions for kids during procedures, and teaching tips and strategies for coping with fear or anxiety.

• CCLSs can also help kids cope with pain and anxiety. They may offer suggestions to parents, such as comfort positioning, a technique often used during procedures like injections to calm a child down. The way a child is positioned can help induce comfort during injections or related medical procedures.

• CCLSs also provide diagnosis education to help families understand and manage a new diagnosis. Child life specialists are trained to explain things like a diagnosis to a child in a way the child can understand, whether that’s through conversation or role playing. Role playing with medical equipment or play kits, for example, helps kids process what they’re learning about their hospital stay and diagnosis.

• Promote child enrichment and play. Play is one of the most important ways a child life specialist can help your child. And just because your child is in a hospital doesn’t mean they’re not going to want to play. A CCLS will often incorporate age-appropriate play activities in every area of support, from helping with procedure education to making another long day in the hospital room a little more fun.

• CCLSs are very involved, hands-on, and trained to respond to many needs. They can help normalize being in a hospital, or getting a medical treatment, whether that involves keeping special days special, or providing kids with their favorite toys from home. Therapeutic medical play is another way child life specialists help kids to get more comfortable with their hospital stay and cope with medical procedures.

Learn more about how child life specialists can help families in our article Child Life Specialist 101.