A medical diagnosis or hospital stay can be tough when you’re a child, and it can be hard on family members as well.
Fortunately, many hospitals, especially children’s hospitals, have certified child life specialists to help guide children and their families through the difficult situations.
“As certified child life specialists, our focus is the psychosocial and developmental well-being of children and their families,” says child life specialist Katie Taylor, CEO and founder of Child Life On Call in Austin, Texas. “While doctors and nurses focus on physical healing, we are there to champion and support the emotional needs of kids and families.”
Child life specialists work with children of all ages, including young adults in some settings.
Their education involves a bachelor’s degree from an Association of Child Life Professionals-endorsed academic program or a bachelor’s degree in a related field along with additional relevant courses. An internship of 600 hours is also required, along with passing a special exam.
[Read: How to Support a Child in Crisis]
What Do Child Life Specialists Do?
Child life specialists wear a lot of different hats depending on what they’re needed for, and every day may be a little different.
“The goal is to help normalize the hospital environment, provide emotional and procedural support and teach coping strategies that make experiences less intimidating,” says Shawn Brasher, director of child life and music therapy at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Managing mental health has always been a priority for child life specialists.
“The COVID pandemic amplified what many of us already knew: Children’s emotional and mental health is inseparable from their physical health,” Taylor says. “Today, child life specialists are even more attuned to trauma, anxiety and the long-term psychological impacts of health care experiences.”
Here are just a few examples of what child life specialists might do in a given day or week:
— Family and patient advocacy. Child life specialists advocate for children and their families, aiming to minimize trauma during a child’s hospital stay, medical procedure or other stressful health care experiences.
— Education. They explain a diagnosis or medical procedure to a child in a way that is easy to understand, often providing medical play activities using teaching dolls, toy medical instruments or visual aids to help them feel more comfortable in the hospital.
— Coping skills. Specialists build rapport by getting to know a child’s unique interests, then they teach and help implement personalized coping strategies to manage pain and anxiety.
— Peer connection. They organize social and group activities that allow teens and children to connect with others who may be sharing similar experiences, promoting normalization and peer support.
— Parent and caregiver support. Child life provides emotional support, information and resources to a child’s parents or caregivers to help them navigate the challenges of their child’s health care journey.
— Emotional support. They offer direct, continuous support to a child during acute, stressful moments, such as when receiving stitches in the Emergency Room or undergoing a blood draw.
— Therapeutic play activities. Child life specialists utilize therapeutic play, creative arts and expressive activities to help lower a child’s anxiety, communicate feelings and manage difficult situations.
— Care team coordination. They work collaboratively with the medical staff to offer valuable insight and guidance regarding a child’s emotional and developmental capacity, helping to determine the best approach for a test or procedure, such as completing an MRI while awake.
— Palliative and end-of-life care. They are integral in providing specialized emotional and psychosocial support to children facing palliative or end-of-life circumstances, addressing their unique fears and needs.
Child life specialists also collaborate closely with these highly trained therapy animals and their handlers to provide comforting animal-assisted therapy.
“I have loved being a child life specialist for 16 years,” says Molly Spagins, a child life specialist with UNC Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “Supporting families in the hospital should be a top priority, and child life specialists are specifically skilled at that.”
[Read: How Do I Find the Best Pediatrician for My Child?]
Where Do Child Life Specialists Work?
Child life specialists primarily work at hospitals.
At a large children’s hospital, like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, there are 20 child life specialists, Brasher says. That’s in addition to four music therapists and a program coordinator with an educational background.
Here are the variety of places where you may find child life specialists working:
| Traditional setting | Non-traditional settings |
|
— — — Children’s hospitals, including newborn ICUs — — — Other hospitals — — |
— — — Addiction recovery programs — — — Community programs — — — Correctional facilities — — — Courtrooms — — — Disaster relief — — — Funeral homes — — — Hospices — — — Private medical practices — — — Schools — — |
[SEE: How to Prepare Your Child for a Hospital Stay]
Child Life Specialist Support for Families and Siblings
A big part of what child life specialists do is working with families — not just the patient.
“That might mean coaching a parent on how to explain a diagnosis, life-altering illness or death to a sibling or helping a caregiver to become a confident advocate for their child in any health care setting,” Taylor says. “When we support the whole family, children feel safer, more prepared and better equipped to cope.”
The information shared by a child life specialist is often useful for parents or family members, who often do not have medical background and knowledge and can benefit from any explanations they share.
“On many occasions when I have finished providing diagnosis education to the patient, their caregiver has told me that my explanation was helpful for them as well to really understand what is happening to their child by using more approachable language,” says Hanna Kuhn, a certified child life specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
Sometimes, a child life specialist also will encourage caregivers to engage in more self-care, such as taking a brief rest or break, so they can return refreshed, Kuhn adds.
Siblings also require special attention.
“Some siblings may feel jealous, withdraw from normal activities or act out to gain attention,” Brasher says.
A child life specialist can help answer questions from siblings and guide families to support each child’s emotional needs.
Maximizing Support: Tips for Working with Your Child Life Specialist
There are some tips you can follow to maximize the type of support you get from a child life specialist:
— Ask for a child life specialist early and often. Many hospitals may provide them but if not, you can ask if there’s one available.
— Use your knowledge of your child to educate the specialist. “Let the care team know what your child is struggling with, whether it’s fear of needles, trouble understanding what’s happening or needing help to prepare siblings,” Taylor advises.
— Work with the child life specialist to better understand how to advocate, or speak up, for your child. This applies both in the hospital but also outside the hospital, such as in the pediatrician’s or dentist’s office, for example.
Bottom Line
Child life specialists can do a lot to support children and their families, leading to better outcomes in all aspects of care.
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What Is a Child Life Specialist? originally appeared on usnews.com
