Child Life Program

Child Life offers a variety of specialized programs designed to help pediatric patients heal and feel better faster by not only treating their condition, but also nurturing their spirit.

Jen's Kids Art Program
Pet Therapy Program
Pre-operative Tour
Special Friends
Starlight Foundation Magic Show
Ronald McDonald®
Ryno Kid Care
Service Projects

Jen's Kids Art Program
This art and craft project is provided by the Riverside Art Center, Riverside, Ill., and offers arts and crafts four days a week.  The free program, held in the Child Life playroom and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center offers entertaining art activities to help children develop their artistic skills as well as keep up activity levels while away from home.

Pet Therapy Program
This specialized program offers pediatric patients the opportunity to visit with trained therapy dogs in the playroom. Allowing children to participate in familiar activities that remind them of home helps them heal and feel better faster. In addition, this program can bring the patients and their medical team together in a fun environment that is not medically related.

Pet therapy is held Wednesdays from 3 – 4 p.m.

Pre-operative Tour
The Child Life team offers a free educational tour and hands-on experience for children having surgery at the hospital as well as for their families.  We educate the family on what to expect while the child is in the hospital. This tour offers support and education that can help decrease the anxiety and stress on both the patient and the family. The tour can help take away the fright that many pediatric patients feel about a hospital stay and can help them and their families feel more comfortable.

Special Friends
Special Friends is a pilot program of the Loyola University Health System and the American Cancer Society, Illinois Division. Based on a “big brother/sister” model, Special Friends is an effort to provide additional emotional and social support to pediatric oncology patients and their families. Patients and siblings are paired with volunteer students from the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

The Special Friends program has some specific goals:

• Provide a non-threatening interaction, companionship and support structure for children with cancer and their siblings.
• Provide students with a unique opportunity to observe and gain an understanding and respect for the complex physical, mental and social aspects of cancer in a child.
• Decrease the social isolation felt by many children with cancer, as well as by their siblings.

In the clinic or hospital, by phone or e-mail, volunteer students provide respite, diversion and support to pediatric patients and their siblings, without being directly involved in the medical aspects of treatment. This relationship grows stronger as the Special Friends spend time away from the treatment environment and participate in fun-filled activities.

Each sibling can have his or her own Special Friend. This provides the brother or sister the same kind of special attention that their ailing sibling is receiving. All activities are equally available to siblings and their Special Friends.

Starlight Foundation Magic Show
Once a month the Starlight/Starbrite Foundation™ sponsors a magic show at Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospital.  The magician performs in the playroom and at bedside.  This service is free and is very popular.  It allows not only an activity to help patients take their mind off their illness, but also offers an opportunity for nurses and physicians to spend non-threatening time with their patients.

Ronald McDonald®
Once a month Ronald McDonald® himself visits to offer laughter with a magic show for our pediatric patients, their families and our staff.

He brings a joyous atmosphere of delight and always a touch of the unexpected for everyone at Ronald McDonald® Children’s Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center.

Ryno Kid Care
This program offers a comprehensive pair of programs that are designed both for children with serious medical conditions and their families. These programs can help patients and their families feel more comfortable in the hospital and can ease some of the burdens of the patients’ illness.

Hospital-based programs:

• Regularly scheduled hospital activities
• Hospital entertainers
• Catered lunches and dinners monthly
• In-hospital entertainment
• Goodie bags – for kids and adults
• Special events in the hospital
• Holiday events
• Monthly out-of-hospital activities
• Creative art programs – Art students from The Art Institute in Chicago work with pediatric patients
• Books on tape
• Camp in a suitcase

Family based programs – specifically designed for children and their family members:

• Coffee hour / Java Jive weekly
• Home-cooked meal delivery weekly
• “7th Inning Stretch” Respite
• Payment for non-reimbursed medical expenses and necessary items – such as gas cards, phone cards, grocery cards, help with utility bills
• Team Care buddies – pen pals, big siblings, or video game pals
• Mentoring and tutoring
• Massage therapists
• Yoga for teens and parents
• Monthly sibling activities
• Building communication Web sites
• Follow-up support when needed after child leaves hospital

Service Projects
You and your organization may wish to help the pediatric patients at Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospital with a service project.  The Child Life office has some suggestions for such projects, but your own ideas are most welcomed.  Once you have decided on a service project, please call the Child Life office to approve your idea at (888) LUHS-888, extension 6-1086.

Locations and Contacts
A full spectrum of pediatric chronic care and development services is available in Maywood at:

The Ronald McDonald® Children’s Hospital of Loyola map

To schedule an appointment with your Loyola pediatrician or pediatric specialist, call (877) 216-KIDS.