March is Child Life Month, and we celebrated by sitting down with Hope for HIE's Certified Child Life Specialist and Grief Counselor, Annie Gunning, for a Child Life Q&A. Annie answered some of the most common questions families have about child life support — both inside the hospital and right here at Hope for HIE.
Missed the live Q&A? No worries. We took notes, and like any good partner, we're willing to share.
Child Life Specialists are professionals trained in child development and the emotional impact of illness and medical experiences. Their role is to help children and families cope with diagnosis, hospitalization, procedures, and all of the feelings that come with those things — through preparation, play, and emotional support.
Their goal is to help families and children feel more confident, less afraid, and less alone.
When families are navigating complex medical journeys — like those in the HIE community — they're often holding a lot at once: fear, uncertainty, and grief alongside deep love and hope. Child Life Specialists help validate that all of these feelings can exist at the same time and are completely normal. Having a safe, supported space to express them matters.
In a hospital or NICU setting, child life support happens in real time. That might look like:
One of the most significant parts of child life work is helping children cope with procedures and treatments. The toolkit includes preparation, comfort strategies, and personalized coping plans — but perhaps the most powerful piece is giving children choices.
When children are given choices, even small ones, they gain a sense of empowerment in situations that are largely out of their control. Combine that with distraction, breathing techniques, comfort positions, and comfort items, and you build trust with the medical team over time. That trust matters enormously, especially for families who will be navigating many appointments and procedures throughout their journey.
Siblings are deeply affected by a brother or sister's medical journey, even when they're not the ones in the hospital room. Annie describes siblings as sometimes being "the forgotten children" in healthcare, and it's one of the reasons she is so passionate about community-based child life support.
Whether through books, play, medical education, or just having their own space to ask questions and feel their feelings, siblings deserve to be included and understood too.
Here's something important: the emotional journey doesn't stop when you leave the hospital. Families go home and are still processing trauma, adjusting to new medical routines, managing uncertainty, and heading to follow-up appointments. Medical anxiety doesn't disappear just because you're back in your own home.
Child life support after discharge helps families:
In a hospital, child life support is often focused on a specific procedure, stay, or visit — intense, in-the-moment support. At Hope for HIE, the support is long-term and community-based.
This is an ongoing relationship that spans the entire HIE journey. From the early days of diagnosis through surgeries, appointments, developmental questions, and everything in between. Support is available through one-on-one Zoom calls, phone calls, emails, and resources that meet families wherever they are right now.
Annie's support through Hope for HIE includes:
One of the things Annie hears most often from parents is: "I don't want to mess this up." Whether it's explaining a diagnosis to their child or preparing a sibling for a hospitalization, parents worry.
You are not messing it up. Parents are almost always doing a better job than they give themselves credit for. Child life support is here to offer guidance, language, and tools — not to replace what parents already know and do for their children. You know your child best. That is your superpower.
HIE can carry both deep love and deep grief, often at the exact same time. Ambiguous grief, secondary loss, uncertainty, and trauma are all real and valid parts of this journey. Child life support — and Annie's training as a Certified Grief Counselor — helps hold space for all of it, while also supporting resilience, connection, and meaning-making for the whole family.
Play is how children process the world. It is their language. For children with medical histories, play offers a way to:
Annie uses medical play (ex: dolls, syringes, supplies) to help children work through what they've experienced and what she learns from watching children play is often profound. What a child does with a doll is frequently a window into how they're feeling and what they need.
No matter where you are in your HIE journey — newly diagnosed, years in, facing a surgery, or somewhere in between — child life support is here. This support is not one-size-fits-all. Annie is always available for one-on-one support tailored specifically to your child and your family.
Connect with Annie and the Hope for HIE Child Life program at HIE.Support.
Watch the full recording, along with our other Child Life Q&As, on Hope for HIE's YouTube channel under the Child Life Series playlist, or download our Key Takeaway resource for an at-a-glance look at the Q&A highlights!
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