Yifan Wang, MA, CCLS, RWWP

When a parent is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family is impacted, especially young children involved. So many changes can happen quickly as a result of diagnosis and treatment on top of the emotional experience the entire family is grappling with. Child life specialists, with their expertise in supporting a child’s emotional, psychosocial, and cognitive well-being during medically related stressful life circumstances, can offer a unique form of support that can immensely benefit families during this journey. 

What is special about child life? How is it different from psychotherapy?

Child life specialists focus not only on the clinical aspects of care but on the psychological and emotional needs of the child. Child life specialists use developmental theories, play, and creative interventions to help children cope with the stress associated with medical conditions, hospitalizations, and family crises, such as a parent's cancer diagnosis. A child life specialist’s training includes child development, family dynamics, psychology, therapeutic play techniques, grief, and more. Unlike psychotherapists, whose approach may delve into deeper psychological issues or trauma, child life specialists focus on immediate coping strategies and emotional support in a way that is age-appropriate and accessible for children. Child life specialists are also experts in supporting children through medically related events, with specific clinical training and education surrounding the impact of medical experiences on children.

How can child life specialists help kids of parents with cancer?

1. Facilitating Communication: Families often desire for a professional to help assist in having difficult conversations to aid opening the lines of communication.

2. Explanations in Age Appropriate Ways: Educate parents on how to explain the diagnosis to their children in a way that is truthful yet age-appropriate. Facilitate educational sessions with children using play and other modalities to honestly and concretely explain medical terminology in a non-threatening and child friendly way.

3. Therapeutic Interventions: Facilitate therapeutic activities involving play, art, and discussion prompts to promote emotional expression, reflection, and support.

4. Providing Emotional Support: Create a safe space for children to express their fears and worries, offer a listening ear and ensure that children feel hears, validated, and understood.

5. Meaningful Activities: Facilitate activities and experiences that create positive memories and moments of joy, despite difficult circumstances.

6. Normalizing the Experience: Validate a child’s emotions to the experiences and recognize that having various feelings are normal.

7. Engaging in Play: Children process complex emotions and scenarios related to their parent’s illness through play. Engaging children in medical play can further aid understanding and processing.

8. Encouraging Coping Strategies: Teach children many types of coping strategies and tailor them to a child's preferences, needs, and age to create a coping tool kit that can help children manage their anxiety and stress.

9. Preparation: Children benefit from preparation for new, potentially difficult experiences, like a hospital visit, chemotherapy side effects, hospice care, etc.

10. Further Resources and Referrals: Connect families with additional resources, such as camps, support groups and various community programs for families dealing with cancer. Provide resources, books, videos, and websites tailored to a child's needs in helping them understand a diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, death, grief and more.

What does a meeting with a child life specialist look like?

Meeting with a child life specialist may first involve a consult, or simply a conversation, where a child life specialist may ask open-ended questions to get to know the family, the diagnosis, and answer any questions or concerns. After assessing the needs, the child life specialist will share with the family his/her plan of action moving forward to support the child and how many sessions may be needed to address the specific needs of that child. Sessions can take place in-person or virtually for children, or over the phone for parents. Types of sessions can vary from one-on-one, to group sessions, or parent and child sessions. A session with a child life specialist typically involves a lot of therapeutic play, education, and parental involvement/input. 

Where to find child life specialists and how to connect with one?

1. Hospitals or Treatment Centers - Child life specialists are typically staffed in pediatric health care settings. If your clinic or hospital is in association with a children's hospital or also offers pediatric care, ask your social worker or doctor if they can put a consult in for a child life specialist to meet with your family.

2. Cancer Support Organizations - Many organizations have resources or connections to child life specialists. They may also have information on family support groups that are facilitated by child life specialists.

3. Private Practice - Child life specialists can also be found in the community providing services in-person or virtually.

Our team at Hearts Connected is staffed with many child life specialists available to help your child navigate a parent's cancer diagnosis. We have no waitlist and are open 7 days a week, providing sessions to parents and children virtually. With child life support, children can learn to navigate their emotions, build an understanding of cancer so they can appropriately respond, and find healthy ways to cope while ensuring their voices are heard and valued during this challenging time. Schedule a free call today to talk directly with one of our child life specialists about how we can support you and your family.

Here are some additional blog entries that may be helpful, and relate to the topic discussed in this entry.

1. To get specific guidance on navigating conversations with your child when a parent is diagnosed with cancer, click here to read.

2.  To understand the difference between a child life specialist and a psychologist, click here to read.

Yifan is a Certified Child Life Specialist with Hearts Connected and holds a Bachelors in Early Childhood and Family Studies and a Masters in Education and emphasis on Child Life from Mills College. She has extensive experience working with hematology and oncology pediatric patients, and programmed support for children of adult cancer patients after becoming a Registered Wonders and Worries Provider, implementing phone and telehealth consults for loved ones to navigate conversations focused on illness education, family communication and coping skill development
info@heartsconnected.org
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