Why do you need a child life specialist?
Like every other situation, children perceive hospitals and medical settings differently. It is quite normal to feel uncomfortable in a new place; no one can feel home in any other place, especially hospitals. While adults can council and tell themselves it is all temporary and that it is for their betterment, children, contrastingly, can’t.
Things that are uncommon, like staying in a hospital, are hard to get comfortable with. With children, it is much more peculiar because they absolutely have no idea what is going on. They do not know the place, or the treatment a random, new face is doing. To tell them what is all that is happening about, hospitals usually have child life specialists.
Child life specialist know a child’s brain inside out. It is far easier for a child life specialist to explain a kid about things than the child’s parents. Their primary focus is on coming on a child’s level to explain them about the medical settings they are in.
If a child does not feel comfortable while treatment, it is very likely that he/she will take longer time to recover. Also, according to Sigmund Freud’s theory of Infantile Prototype, if this child is younger than 6 years of age this experience can leave a prominent impact on the developing brain. Any unpleasant experience before the age of six leaves a lifelong impression and can produce a change in a child’s personality. To take care that does not happen in a hospital experience, child life specialist play their significant part.
Furthermore, as it might be quite evident already, a child will hesitate in treatments if he/she does not feel okay about the surroundings. Child life specialists explain children about the problem they have and what the doctor will do to fix it. Not only this, as hard as it sounds, child life specialists even explain children how is the doctor going to treat their illness. All those unpronounceable medical terms are brought down to an elementary level and explained to the children. After they get to know enough about what is happening and why, they feel more confident about the treatment and comfortable about the hospital environment. With this, they are up for the treatments with all their mind and body and recover faster than usual.
Child life specialists do not only take care of the child, their job also requires to comfort the family. As the family might contain other siblings of similar age group, a child life specialist also explains the case to them and communicate with the parents, too. Everyone feels good while receiving moral support and knowing that their kid is not alone.
Putting it in a nutshell, a kid being a victim to any kind of illness effects a lot of people apart from the child. Child life specialists work to maintain the normality in the life of the parents, siblings, and especially the child facing unpleasant and unwanted circumstances. This saves a mishap from making a permanent impact on lives and makes the child go home not only with better health but confidence, positivity, and psychological strength.
