We know it can be scary when your child needs to go to the hospital. UW Health Kids child life specialists help your child and family cope with any fears and anxieties.
Our team includes specialists trained in child and teen development. We explain medical procedures and diagnoses in an appropriate way for each child to understand for their age and development. We use play and other distractions to make your child’s time in the hospital as positive as possible.
When we work with teens, we empower them with tools and resources to create a coping plan for return to home and school. We also help teens as they transition to adult care.
Child-centered services
We provide a wide range of activities, guidance, services and spaces to keep your child comfortable and relaxed and to support your family. They include:
Adjustment to hospitalization
Coping techniques
Daily activities
Education and resources for difficult conversations with children
Emotional support
Medical play
Memory making and legacy building
New diagnosis teaching
Pain control and comfort measures
Playrooms and teen lounges (24-hour)
Preparation for surgery
Procedure support
Self-expression activities
Sibling support and education
Special events and visitors
Therapeutic activities
Trauma support
Certified child life specialists are trained clinicians who focus on a patient and family’s emotional safety during medical experiences, aiming to promote empowerment, understanding and reduce the possibility of medical trauma. Certified child life specialists help with:
Education/preparation – Educate patients and families in developmentally appropriate ways about experiences in the hospital.
Coping with procedures and hospitalizations – Create coping plans that include preparation, distraction, comfort positions, normalization and play to reduce the negative impact of hospitalization on a child’s development.
Play – Use play as a tool for children to learn about and process through their experiences in the hospital.
Sibling support – Help siblings of ill children understand their sibling’s diagnosis and prepare them for visits.
Family-centered care – An illness to a child impacts the whole family, and our model of care supports the whole family as they cope through a hospital experience.
Our child life assistants offer opportunities for play and normalization in the hospital. They provide bedside activities, playroom activities and special events to make sure kids continuing learning and developing in the hospital.
Music is naturally engrained across various cultural affiliations, and the life span of all developmental ages. It can also access multiple areas of the brain simultaneous and therefore, can be inherently healing. Music therapy is an evidenced-based practice that uses individualized assessment and treatment plan to address a variety of your child’s goals, including:
Reducing stress and anxiety
Decreasing pain perception
Promote memory/legacy making
Normalizing the environment
Promote development
Enhancing self-expression
Supporting functional motor, cognitive, or speech skills
Improving mood
Alternate engagement during medical procedures
Promote family connection and bonding
Promoting autonomy
Music therapy sessions can vary from passively listening to actively creating and may include:
Playing instruments
Songwriting
Singing
Music for relaxation
Listen and talking about music
Creating playlists
Moving or dancing to music
Creating recordings
Learning a new instrument
About our music therapist
Music therapists are trained health care professionals designated by the credential MT-BC. Music therapy is a bachelors entry level position from an accredited university, with six-month full time internship and board certification exam. Others may pursue additional education with masters or doctoral in music therapy as well. For more information about music therapy education visit American Music Therapy Association or Certification Board for Music Therapists.
Our cosmetologist that works in our positive image center works with your child to ease anxiety about appearance-altering conditions, treatments or procedures. Services include:
Haircuts for patients experience hair loss or extended hospitalization
Guidance for coping with hair loss, including wig fitting/applications, hats and head coverings
Wig cutting and styling
Temporary hair color – hair chalk/spray (removed after one wash) or clip in extensions
EEG glue removal, hair detangling and washing
Braiding and hair styling to prevent tangles
Nail filing, polish and nail art sticker application
Temporary tattoos
Through partnership with the Madison Metropolitan School District, school teachers help children in 4K through high school keep up with their school work while in the hospital.
Our facility dogs are expertly trained canines who are partnered with staff handlers to assist with goal-orientated interventions that address the physical and psychosocial needs of patients and families.
Our child life program is entirely funded through the generous support of donors. You can support our child life team to help patients and families cope with their hospitalization and bring normalcy and diversion during their visit. To make a gift, visit our giving site.
Donations of toys or items (brand new and from a smoke free and pet free home) can be dropped off from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. to valet staff on behalf of child life. For more specific information about donations please reference this document. Learn more about donation information (pdf).
You can also directly donate the most needed in-kind items for our patients by visiting our Amazon registry. Items are shipped directly to our hospital.
For questions, please email childlifedonationsspecialevents@uwhealth.org or call (608)-206-6817.
You can work with our child life team to prepare your child for a hospital stay or surgery. Steps you can take include:
Helping your child understand what will happen with our teaching sheets (below). Please contact afchchildlife@uwhealth.org if the upcoming procedure is not included and more information is desired.
Talking with your child and encouraging questions
Child life has many resources, books, and communication tips to support your child’s developmental level. Child life can be requested anywhere in the American Family Children’s Hospital.
What to bring
Bringing items of comfort and familiarity with you to the hospital can help ease the transition to a place that is less familiar to your child. Blankets, stuffed animals, and items for sleep routines are all encouraged. Even preferred electronics and their chargers can help.
- Blood draw (pdf)
- Cast removal (pdf)
- CT (computed tomography) scan (pdf)
- EEG (electroencephalogram) (pdf)
- IV (intravenous) catheter (pdf)
- Kidney biopsy (pdf)
- MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) (pdf)
- MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) (video)
- Nasendoscopy (pdf)
- Ultrasound (pdf)
- VCUG (Voiding cystourethrogram) (pdf)
- X-rays (pdf)
- View all teaching sheets
- Watch our video: What child life specialists do
- Watch our video: What to expect when you have surgery at American Family Children’s Hospital
- MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) (video)
Caring Canines is our volunteer therapy dog program that provides normalization and social visits for patients and families with certified therapy dogs.
We work with your child to ease anxiety about appearance-altering conditions or procedures.
We provide space and programming where siblings of ill children can interact with other siblings. If you have questions or would like to schedule an appointment with Tyler’s Place, please call (608) 890-8037.
We have many friendly volunteers who interaction and play with patients and provide support to families.
We offer a child life internship for aspiring child life specialists. Please visit the career page to learn more about our child life internship.
American Family Children's Hospital
East Madison Hospital