CDST411-Morgan Grier

For this assignment I made it my goal to use concepts that we have learned in class and apply them to my tool bag. The first thing I looked for was different coping strategies. I found ways for children to express their feelings using colors with various activities. I also found a Jenga game that I found that had different questions on them that helped the child talk about things that might be bothering them or things they have experienced in their past. Another area that I focused largely on was explaining death and illness. That would be a very challenging part of this job for me. I found a bunch of children’s books that did a good job of explaining it. I didn’t know that there was so many resources out there to help with this. I also thought that the books did a good job of putting death and illness in a perspective that a young child would be able to understand. Earlier in the quarter I did an article review on music therapy in the hospital where I saw all of the amazing benefits that it provided. I made sure to include that as well because it has been proven to help with expression of emotion, stress relief, coping, and much more. Music therapy can be used for children of all ages and can be adapted to fit children with limitations of all kinds Throughout Pinterest I also found a lot of medical play and ways that CCLS can explain procedures to children through dolls, and stuffed animals. This is a huge part of being an effective CCLS to me because the procedures can oftentimes be the most stressful part for the child. As I continued to search I also saw a bunch of other little cute ideas that seemed fun and therapeutic for the child that I ended up adding to my board. This website is a great place to get ideas and instigation to use as a CCLS.