Parents often find it difficult to do all the things they would like to with their children when in hospitals for fear of hurting them or upsetting the clinical environment.
Lindsay Carr, children’s occupational therapist and Penny Walsh, children’s physiotherapist, care for children who need to be in hospital for weeks or even months at a time, often supported by medical devices such as cannules, lines, tracheostomies and even Berlin Hearts.
They have designed an interactive poster featuring examples of important developmental play whilst in hospital, giving parents the confidence to interact and play with their child as they would at home and minimise the impact of long hospital stays on the developmental progress of very young children.
You can find the poster on our Child Development: Don’t Delay the Play webpages.
Lindsay and Penny explain why and how they developed their ‘Don’t Delay the Play’ poster
“As the developmental physiotherapist and occupational therapist at the Great North Children’s Hospital we have the privilege of sharing a family’s entire journey whilst in hospital” explains Lindsay.
“Over time we could see that some children were not making as much developmental progress as they normally would, because they were hospital.”
In fact Lindsay and Penny observed that many parents and carers felt intimidated by the complex medical surroundings, causing them to feel disempowered when trying to look after their children.
“We regularly receive referrals for children highlighting concerns about developmental delay, head shape, sensory processing needs, communication and feeding difficulties” says Penny.
“After speaking to parents we noticed a pattern. They were worried about picking them up if lines and attachments were involved, or that they might hurt them.”
Holding and interacting with your child is really important so feeling unable to do this inevitably has an impact on attachment and bonding.”
Penny Walsh, children's physiotherapist
Lindsay and Penny were inspired to develop a friendly and engaging poster called ‘Don’t Delay the Play’.
<Click on the poster to enlarge>
“We felt that a poster would be a useful resource in a place where the parents could have a look at their own leisure when they had a little downtime on the ward” explains Lindsay.
We wanted to combat feelings of anxiety and help them enjoy their time with their children and have fun
Lindsay Carr, children’s occupational therapist
The aim of the poster is to empower parents and families of children in hospital from being newborn up to 24 months old.
It provides helpful tips and advice in an easy to follow format so that it can be read again and again and includes innovative technology with QR codes for the reader to scan and find out further information on relevant topics.
Mum Kathryn Debbage adds “I’d be petrified to touch Logan – I sometimes didn’t feel sure if it was alright to pick him up – you feel like you can’t touch them.
“The poster has been really helpful. You can be sat there having a look and think ‘Ah! I haven’t done that with him for a couple of days, let’s try that’. I found it invaluable for my memory and it gave me confidence that I could take the lead.”
Becky Gray is mum to Teddy who was cared for in the paediatric intensive care unit at the Great North Children’s Hospital for a considerable length of time. She says “Holding Teddy was something that felt really scary because he had lots of medical equipment such as wires and tubes and often play was the thing that would get missed.
“There weren’t pictures out there that looked like Teddy, that represented all the attachments that Teddy had. This poster helped to normalise some of that and let us know firstly we weren’t on our own, but also helped us to know that positions and play was possible despite all of this equipment.”
Of Lindsay and Penny’s initiative Associate Director for Allied Health Professionals Ewan Dick said: “Being in hospital can be a scary and difficult time for children and their family especially when they have a longer stay and are experiencing complex treatment and surgery.
Play is such a vital part of child development in the early years, and more importantly it’s fun!!
Associate Director for Allied Health Professionals Ewan Dick
“Lindsay and Penny have done some fantastic work to develop the ‘Don’t Delay the Play’ poster, and all the support that can be offered to families and staff will be of huge help, providing information, ideas and making early years development in hospital a bit more fun!”
Specially commissioned artwork
“We commissioned the illustrations on the poster to represent the demographically and medically diverse children and families we see here in Newcastle” says Penny.
“A lot of the positive feedback we’ve had is that the illustrations are eye-catching and relatable to our patients.”
The images were produced by colleague and talented illustrator Hannah Littler-Smith and they, along with the poster itself, were funded by the Great North Children’s Hospital Foundation, part of the Newcastle Hospitals Charity and have been a great success.
“It’s been really important to work with Hannah who is a member of staff and also a fantastic artist” adds Lindsay.
“They are so good because of her understanding and knowledge of children with lots of different attachments and medical interventions. She was able to use that experience to really bring the key messages to life in a way that is meaningful to parents on the wards.”
The illustrations will now become a regular feature in a number of similar projects at the Great North Children’s Hospital and neonatology, and nationally as part of the Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapist’s (APCP) website and publications, providing inclusive and representative images for patients and families.
You can watch a video about the ‘Don’t Delay the Play’ Poster here:
