Find a Physician

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

Clinical Services

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

Health Information

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

Research and Clinical Trials

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

For Patients, Families & Visitors

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

Professionals

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

Hospital News

Return to Children's Activities and Programs Overview

Children's Activities and Programs

Child Life

A child's needs in the hospital are similar to those at home. He or she needs to feel secure, comforted, and accepted and to be able to engage in age-appropriate activities. These needs are often magnified by the stress of illness and hospitalization. Recognizing that being hospitalized can be frightening to children, the Hospital's Child Life program creates an environment to help ease children's fears and provide the important emotional and psychosocial care to make the hospital experience as manageable as possible for both the child and the family.

Child Life staff consists of accredited professionals who apply their child development expertise to help children understand, cope with, and master their medical experience. Their knowledge of children's reactions to the stresses of illness and medical procedures allows them to assess a child's and family's needs, and provide appropriate interventions. These interventions include, but are not limited to, preparations for tests and procedures, coping strategies, and diversional activities that help to normalize the environment. These activities take place either at the bedside or in Child Life Centers filled with toys, video games and computers, and provide a respite from the medical setting.

Programs and special events also provided to the patients and families include a visit from a cuddly dog from the Hospital's Angel on a Leash pet therapy program or a clown from the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit. The Wintergarden plaza in the Hospital's lobby offers regular programming from story time to concert, skits, and other performances. Our pediatric patients can attend with permission from their doctor or nurse.

Our Child Life specialists are available for inpatients and outpatients visiting the surgery unit, the outpatient hematology/oncology clinic, endoscopy unit, and Emergency Department. They also help families during bereavement.

The Child Life Centers are located in Tower 4, 5, and 6. They offer age-appropriate activities for children to use in the playroom or to borrow to use in their room. Please check with the Child Life specialist on your unit for playroom hours. While not all patients will see a Child Life specialist, you can ask a nurse to call the Child Life specialist on your child's unit. For more information, call (212) 342-8579.

Charna's Kids' Club, located in the Tower 4 Child Life suite, was established by the Charna Radbell Foundation's Gift of Sunshine Fund. It is a free recreational program designed for school-age children 5 and older whose siblings are patients at the Hospital. Charna's Kids' Club addresses the needs of these children within a nurturing and fun environment. Multidisciplinary recreational activities will help them to better understand their surroundings, express their feelings, and meet peers who are experiencing similar circumstances.

The Club meets in the warm and inviting Child Life Centers designed to minimize the anxiety and stress associated with having a brother or sister who is ill. Children enjoy arts and crafts, music, drama, special events, group games and activities, and will also be given help with homework. Snacks are also provided.

For more information on Charna's Kids' Club, please call (212) 342-8579.

Hospitalized children in grades K though 12 can keep up with their studies by utilizing the Hospital's school program, which provides full-time teachers on site. Students attending New York City Schools will be taught by teachers certified through the New York City Board of Education. Students attending non-New York City schools will be serviced by teachers through Education, Inc. In addition to providing classroom or bedside instruction on site, the program maintains a close liaison with your child's home school and facilitates the provision of remedial help or tutoring as needed. Teachers also help prepare and administer city- and state-required tests, including Regents, SATs, and GEDs.

Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital has an indoor Wintergarden plaza within our lobby that provides a wonderful venue for music, dance, choral and dramatic performances. We also offer the Wintergarden Story Hours featuring authors like Eric Carle, Elise Primavera, and Judy Viorst. These performances offer patients and families a respite from their illnesses. Through our partnership with schools in the community, local school children may join patients and families for a performance. In addition, a closed circuit feed to each patient room allows patients unable to leave their room to view performances live from the bedside through our television system.

Some of our favorite performances have been:

• Grammy nominated pop star Avril Lavigne
• American Idols
• Gavin Degraw
• Chris Daughtry
• New York Theater
• R&B sensation Mario Winans
• The cast from the Christmas Carol
• Award-winning author Faith Ringgold
• The Adventures of Zak, a musical production by the Magical Music for Life Foundation
• Baseball star Derek Jeter