Child Life & Education Program
Contact Us
Email us at childlife@metrohealth.org
The Child Life and Education team at MetroHealth is an integral part of the healthcare team that works with children and families to provide emotionally safe care.
Certified Child Life Specialists teach positive coping, decrease fears and anxieties, and support growth and development during healthcare experiences. They help children and families identify their strengths to help manage potential stress and unfamiliarity of hospital encounters. This is done through play, assessment, education, preparation, and advocacy.
Services for Children and Families
Child life specialists help prepare children and families for hospital experiences by explaining medical procedures and tests in a simple, honest, and developmentally appropriate manner. Tactile objects such as teaching dolls, models, medical equipment, and photos are often used with a child and/or family to enhance teaching and understanding.
Child life specialists focus on the feeling aspects of hospitalization. Acknowledging and validating the hospital experience is potentially anxiety producing. Child life specialists facilitate children and families to utilize existing coping skills. Child life specialists also work to create a comfortable and supportive environment for patients and families to express themselves.
Child life embraces the value of play in healing. Specialists work to enhance the optimal growth and development of infants, children and adolescents through play.
Opportunities for familiarization, education, and integration of information are facilitated through the use of medical equipment. Through play, children’s misconceptions are often identified, clarified, and feelings and concerns validated.
Support is provided to children and families before, during and after medical procedures, treatment room experiences, and surgery. Children are helped in identifying and utilizing positive coping responses.
The school teacher at MetroHealth is provided by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and offers a variety of benefits for our school-aged patients. The school teacher meets with patients in grades K- 12 in the areas of both regular and special education to provide academic services in the least restrictive environment.
The school teacher also collaborates with parents, guardians, home school districts and hospital staff to provide planning and implementation of developmentally appropriate curriculum to students while admitted to MetroHeath Medical Center. If necessary, home instruction is arranged for children who may need six or more weeks of recuperation at home before returning to school, as well as provide emotional support and planning for the student’s return to home and school.
- Inpatient Playroom
The playroom on the fourth floor of the Glick Center includes multiple activity centers for pediatric patients. Children can enjoy a variety of age-appropriate toys, games, crafts, and activities. Children are always supervised in this space by either a parent or caregiver or by a member of the healthcare staff. For children admitted to the hospital that cannot come to the playroom, play can be brought right to their bedside!
- The Tree House
The tree house is an indoor and outdoor play area within the playroom. It’s an oasis from the hospital stay where children can explore and play. It is a friendly, colorful, interactive space that inspires and encourages hospitalized children through respite and discovery. They engage in active play, spend quiet time with books and crafts, and enjoy special events. For young patients and their families, the space fosters a sense of connectivity to others and ultimately, wellness. The space is a window to the outside world for patients who have been living inside the hospital.
- Multi-Sensory Room
The multi-sensory room is a calming, therapeutic space designed to provide children with a controlled sensory experiences. It includes a bubble tube, fiber optic tubes, specialized lighting, interactive floor, and wall with endless choices. The room promotes relaxation, emotional regulation, opportunities for choices, and comfort during hospitalizations. For children who cannot come to the multi-sensory room or for children in the outpatient health center, a mobile multi-sensory unit is available.
Embracing Play
Child Life embraces the healing value of play. The staff works to enhance the optimal growth and development of infants, children, and adolescents through assessment, intervention, preparation, prevention, advocacy, and education.
The Child Life team works with both inpatients and outpatients. Team members are master's or bachelor's educated, and nationally certified through the Association of Child Life Professionals.
Our program was established in 1955 by Emma N. Plank (1905-1990) as the nation’s first university-affiliated Child Life and Education program. Ms. Plank was an assistant professor of child development in the Department of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Her 1962 book, Working with Children in Hospitals, continues to inform Child Life professionals at MetroHealth and throughout the world.
Wish Lists! Your contributions are appreciated!
Child Life Practicum and Internship
MetroHealth's Child Life and Education program offers a diverse experience in various areas during the year for Child Life students. Learn more here.
