A Program for Hospitalized Children

When children are hospitalized they are exposed to an unfamiliar and frequently forboding world of an efficiently run institution. They cannot, as adults do, afford to interrupt (Plant, 1962) their normal way of living and exclude the relationships, play and learning that contribute to their overall growth. There is a general tendency for children to be treated much in the same manner that adults are when they are confined in a hospital situation. The adult (Chapman, 1956) is prepared to make this temporary adjustment because he is aware, to some extent, of the need for hospitalization and the positive consequence of necessary painful procedures to which he is subjected. He is an adult with adults serving him and he is aware of his power to leave or to dismiss individuals in his attendance.