Child Life Specialists
at Wellstar Children's Hospital of Georgia

Our Approach

Hospitals can be scary for young patients, siblings and parents. We are here to reassure patients and their families that they are in a safe place and that everything we are doing is to help them.

Using developmentally appropriate activities, we can help children understand their medical treatment in "kid language". We care for all ages of patients - from birth up to age 21 – focusing on patient- and family-centered care.

We also answer any questions patients’ families might have while their child is here with us.

Why Choose Us

Comprehensive care for children

We have the pediatric clinical expertise and experience of taking care of generations of children by providing expert care based on your child’s individual growth patterns and level of development. Our team provides a full support staff that helps your whole family through short term or longer term health issues. We understand that your child’s health affects the entire family because life doesn’t slow down when illness occurs.

Nationally certified

At Children’s Hospital of Georgia, we follow The Association of Child Life Professionals guidelines so all of our team members are skillfully trained to work with our pediatric patients. Each member of our team must have a bachelor's degree (typically in Child Development), complete an extensive internship under the supervision of a certified Child Life Specialist, and pass the Child Life certification examination.

Developmentally Appropriate Interventions

Our team of Child Life Specialists help young patients during their hospital or clinic visit by giving extra support for coping and encouraging normal childhood activities while receiving medical care. We also know that providing children with familiar activities helps make them more comfortable and content, we do this through:

• Medical play, which helps a young child understand what is happening. This play is critical to a child’s healing and helps them to feel normal.
• Coping and distraction techniques, can help children get through stressful procedures.
• Psychological preparations and therapeutic intervention, for children who are having a particularly difficult time dealing with their diagnosis and treatment.

Materials used by Child Life Specialists are supplemented by generous donations.

Building rapport with long-term patients

Our longer term patients get to know our Child Life Specialists and are always happy to see a friendly and familiar face when they return to the hospital for either an appointment or procedure. Our priority is to ease any anxiety, especially for those patients most often adversely affected by a hospital admission - our very young patients from 6 months to 4 years of age. Our goal is to help children understand the hospital, their treatment, and the medical process.

Special events for children

We try to remember that kids don’t want to miss special events just because they are in the hospital. So our team schedules frequent character visits – super heroes and princesses, and pet therapy - once a month. Also, community groups provide activities that include special events and games. Holidays are very fun! We take our kids trick-or-treating throughout the hospital and Santa comes on Christmas day!