Through the Eyes of a Child Life Specialist
The Child Life specialists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center form special bonds with the patients, and from these bonds come heart-warming memories that last a lifetime. Here are two such stories:
Tale of an Elephant's Roar
In the Child Life Activity Center, we have a sensory table. One week, we had beans and jungle animals at the table -- including a large elephant that when you pushed his ear, he roared. A 3-year-old boy with Down Syndrome came in to the Activity Center with his daddy. He was frightened by the elephant's noise, but over and over again he asked his daddy to make it roar. Each time he'd run away and cover his ears, but he kept asking and replaying the situation. Then, one day, he wasn't afraid of the elephant anymore and he could play comfortably at the sensory table. How wonderful it was to provide a normal developmental growth activity and let him play it out in our room!
A Musical Afternoon
One afternoon, an 11-year-old boy in a wheelchair visited the Activity Center with his grandfather. The child had little use of his body. He could hold the PlayStation" controller if you gave it to him, and he could kind of make it work. He wasn't comfortable using his voice and he would "bark" at his grandfather to say who he was.
As the afternoon wore on, the boy ended up over by the electric piano picking at the keys and singing a few words off and on quietly. I walked over and asked if he wanted me to play and we could sing together. He said yes. We sang and sang for probably 20 minutes. He was right in there with me choosing the songs and joining in when he knew the words. At one point I said, "You have a really good voice." With great astonishment he replied, "I do?" We continued to sing but it was like he'd never even imagined that his voice was okay and it pleased him greatly. We had a truly good time.
