Valley Children’s specialists understand that play is the work of children

Street sales of the special Kids Day edition of The Fresno Bee were suspended this year due to coronavirus concerns. This story was to appear in the special edition. To make a 2020 Kids Day donation, go to valleychildrens.org/kidsday, or text GEORGE to 20222 to make an automatic $10 contribution. Kids Day will return to the streets in 2021.

As Wyatt Vannoy walks into the Child Life playroom at Valley Children’s Hospital one morning, he looks a bit downtrodden.

The 5-year-old is recovering from a round of chemotherapy that hopefully will send his pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia into remission.

He sinks into a chair across from Child Life specialist Sarah Freer and she asks him if he’d like to learn about veins. Wyatt shakes his head no.

Would he like to play with the life-size doll she brought? Also no.

Freer has worked with Wyatt a few times since he was diagnosed in October. She knows what will get him excited.

How about we make a pizza?

Wyatt’s eyes light up and he heads for a play kitchen that holds pots, pans and all the wooden ingredients to make a pretend pizza and more.

Freer is one of a staff of 18 who work with children during their hospital stays to help normalize the hospital experience.

She can provide distraction during a procedure, or be a teacher to help kids understand their illness. Other times, she builds pizzas and makes slime.

“When Wyatt first came to the hospital, I did a lot of preparation with him, using tools like dolls to show him what a port was to prepare him for surgery,” Freer said. “We use different tools to help talk to (kids) about their illness in a way that they can understand.”

Child Life’s semi-centennial year

The Child Life program is celebrating a milestone in 2020 — 50 years of helping kids at Valley Children’s Hospital.

It started with toys being pushed around in a shopping cart for kids to play with, and has grown into an education and development program that helps babies, toddlers, kids and teens cope with life in the hospital.

There are still plenty of toys involved: specialist Elizabeth Fox, who works on the surgical floor, carries around a tote bag filled with crafts and trinkets everywhere she goes.

She explains how certified Child Life specialists approach each stage of development at the hospital.

“When I talk to a 2-year-old about going to surgery, I may not give him every single detail about what the surgical experience entails,” she said.

She focuses instead on what toddlers care about at that age.

“Your mom is going to be with you until you fall asleep, she’ll be there right when you wake up, nothing is going to happen to you,” she might tell a toddler. “We’ll definitely talk about no ouchies, no pokes, things like that.”

For a teen, “I might explain it in a lot more detail,” she said. “I talk about a lot of the medical terminology that they hear.”

Fox says a 7- or 8-year-old might worry about going to sleep and never waking up.

“We can help them because we have the educational background to know that these are common fears among certain age groups. We can address those things without kids even having to tell us.”

Child Life in the NICU

In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 6-month-old Audrey gets to play a few times a week with Child Life specialist Marisa Ybarra-Reyes.

Audrey, who has never been home, sits up on a nursing pillow and reaches out to touch her “Ten Splishy Splashy Fish” book as Ybarra-Reyes encourages her to stretch her arms.

Ybarra-Reyes said she tries to make sure babies are getting the developmental stimulation they need because there are days they might be staring at the ceiling all day.

Sometimes that means sitting up, reaching out and vocalizing; other times, it just means snuggling against a warm body before taking a nap.

“Babies need that positive touch and that interaction,” Ybarra-Reyes said. “So many babies are here in the NICU and they experience so much negative touch in the sense of poking and blood pressures and procedures, that they get stressed out. As much positive touch as you can provide them is so important.”

The future of Child Life

The Child Life program is run entirely on donations. If you’ve ever been asked at Panda Express to donate to Valley Children’s Hospital, that’s exactly where your money is going, Fox said.

With that funding, the department is looking to add more specialists to staff the hospital 24 hours a day.

In the meantime, Child Life is always looking for volunteers and donations of new, unwrapped toys.

No surprises

Back in the Child Life playroom, Wyatt builds his wooden pizza and whips up some soup for his parents while they watch nearby.

Freer said Child Life specialists are trained to work with kids, but she sees benefits for the adults in the room, too.

“We see a lot of responses from the parents being able to be more relaxed.”

Wyatt’s mom, Tricia Ingham, says having Freer become a familiar face has been helpful in their journey. The family is from Visalia and has made a few hospital stays with Wyatt.

“When he sees Sarah, he is going to pretty much do anything to make her proud of him,” she says. “They explain everything as they go. They don’t let him have any surprises.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 6:20 PM.