Schools Count

Thank you so much! I'm a child life specialist, and I'm working with a team of child life specialists. We work in pediatric hospital settings. Through developmentally appropriate medical play and medical conversation, we help children understand what's happening to them. We strive to provide a good hospital experience. Honestly, we don't get a lot of respect. We're not doctors or nurses; we are developmental psychologists. Medical colleagues see us at work, and they think we get paid to play all day. We are designing a study, hopefully the first of many, to rigorously demonstrate the benefits of child life services. This first study is a randomized intervention/control study where half the patients will receive the child life intervention and the other half will receive standard of care.