Children and siblings use of play to work through medical trauma

Children's reactions to and coping with traumatic medical experiences have been recorded through play. Through make believe play and accompanying stories, a child can recreate traumatic experiences in a way in which he or she can gain mastery and control over upsetting and stressful events. In this study, participants were 15 children with serious medical Illnesses, 14 siblings of children with a medical illness, and 6 children in the community who did not have any ill family members. Children participated in play groups and their play with medical toys was videotaped and coded for themes that would provide a window on their perspectives. Grounded theory was used to guide qualitative analyses. The play of children with medical illnesses and siblings was similar. This indicated that siblings may experience vicarious trauma, if their brother or sister is hospitalized. Support from others was a resilience factor for coping, while coping with needle sticks was perceived as especially difficult. Children also tended to use distraction as a coping strategy. In contrast, children in the comparison group did not engage in much medical play and when they did, they did not demonstrate a rich play experience with detailed medical stories. Findings revealed that play was a mechanism for working through stress and coping with emotions related to medical trauma. Future research should focus on ways to use play therapy techniques to help medically ill children and their siblings cope with medical trauma.