Kelly Garber
Certified Child Life Specialist
LATEST PROJECTS
A Doll Like You
Part of being a Child Life Specialist is normalizing the hospital experience for patients and families. When a patient undergoes something that changes their appearance--even if temporary--it is important for them to feel comfortable. Depending on their age and developmental stage, some patients and families like having a doll that looks like them.
The doll on the left was created with a patient who was scheduled to get an NG tube for feeding. I encouraged him to help create the doll prior to his procedure so that he could get more comfortable with the tube and the process of placing it.
The doll on the right was created for a young patient who had spinal surgery and needed a metal halo to protect her back for 6 weeks. I used loose parts to create a halo for this doll so she would have a friend who looked like her.
A Bone
To Pick
Many children are familiar with bones and have likely been exposed to chicken bones and/or bones for dogs in their homes. Bones in the human body, however, are often a tricky topic for children to grasp, as they have many layers that are not readily visible.
This project used common household items to demonstrate the layers of the bone, including the compact bone (a toilet paper roll), spongy bone (a thick yellow sponge), yellow marrow (a thin yellow sponge), red marrow (a red straw), and blood vessels (red and blue pipe cleaners).
Circulatory System
This project was used to demonstrate the circulatory system. The red string represents the oxygenated blood traveling away from the heart through arteries while the blue string represents the oxygen-starved blood traveling back to the heart through veins.
Our Countries
At Save A Child's Heart, children come from all over the world for life-saving heart surgery. Some of the kids expressed interest in learning about where they and their new friends came from, so I suggested that we create a map. The activity took many days and the kids were all encouraged to participate. They colored a flag for each country that was represented in the house by a child, volunteer, staff member, or nurse. They also had great fun guessing and/or showing me where their countries were and putting a ribbon there.