Unique Programs
Many of our unique programs for hospitalized children and their families involve Child Life specialists, trained pediatric professionals dedicated to meeting the growth and developmental needs and enhancing the coping skills of infants, children, and adolescents while they are in the hospital. In addition, specially trained pediatric professionals and trained volunteers offer families assistance through targeted support programs.
Daily play groups
Held inside the Janice and Kimberly Brown Family Life Center, play groups are organized by age. For a specific group and Morton Teen Lounge schedules, please call 773.880.4000 and ask for extension 2060. Bedside volunteers are also available to work with infants and toddlers days and evenings Monday through Friday and weekend days.
- Infant/toddler group: An age-appropriate play group for inpatients and siblings from birth to three years of age is held weekday mornings. This group is supervised by a Child Life Specialist and specially trained volunteers. Toys are chosen to enhance the development of children in a hospital setting.
- School-age play group: This developmental play group provides an opportunity for school-age children to play, relax, interact with peers and acquire new skills while hospitalized. Arts and crafts, board games, dramatic and medical play, computer and video games are always available. Special events, such as Skylight TV shows and garden play are held during this group.
- Teen group and the Morton Teen Lounge: As a special area for patients ages 12 and older, the teen group meets in the Morton Teen Lounge to socialize, play video and board games and to engage in activities of interest to this age group. Teen Group is held regularly, and daily schedules are posted.
Weekly and biweekly programs
Also held inside the Brown Family Life Center, please ask for schedules upon your arrival at the hospital for these inpatient programs.
- Animal assisted therapy: Animal assisted therapy benefits the overall physical and emotional well being of patients and families at Children's Memorial. Each week, specially trained dogs provide entertainment and comfort to children in the Brown Family Life Center. Children are able to feed, brush, pet and walk the dogs when they arrive with their owners and trained volunteers. All dogs go through rigorous training and come to the hospital through Rainbow Animal Assisted Therapy. If you and your dog are interested in animal assisted therapy, please contact Rainbow directly at 773.283.1129.
- Garden play program: By providing patients with the opportunity to nurture a plant or create a project with natural materials, garden play allows for the joy and relaxation that comes from gardening. Call 773.880.4000, ext. 58951 for the schedule.
- Project White Hat: For more than 30 years, Project White Hat has been a collaboration between the sailors at the Great Lakes Naval Station and the hospital. After a briefing by Child Life specialists, sailors visit and play with patients.
Special events
On any given day of the week, the main hospital's Siragusa Lobby is home to unusual and entertaining special events. Visitors may come face to face with a bubbleologist, the Yo-Yo Man, or The Great Pumpkin.
These lobby events are not just for fun. They are educational, developed to promote creative and critical thinking skills in children. Many incorporate projects and activities parents can easily duplicate at home.
Concerts, which encompass various musical styles, occur frequently. The performers are carefully selected to appeal to a broad age group and a variety of musical tastes. While not formal music therapy, these concerts provide a much-needed distraction and respite for patients and families.
Jackie's Toy Chest
Available at the Children's Memorial Outpatient Center in Lincoln Park, Jackie's Toy Chest is a unique family-centered developmental play program for children with disabilities, special health care needs, or challenges that place them at risk. It features individualized and small group play sessions for children with disabilities and special needs using developmentally appropriate toys and equipment.
It is also Lekotek Center, a place that uses family-centered play to bring together families of children with special needs in an environment of failure-free learning as well as a toy library and developmental education program.
Trained Lekotek leaders can tailor play sessions to the specific needs of each patient and family as well as make referrals to special needs programs and services. A resource library and information for caregivers of children with special needs is also available. Call 773.327.2340 for information or to make an appointment.
Robbie Fund Discovery Carts
Available at various Children's Memorial Outpatient Centers, trained volunteers and staff facilitate play using activity centers and Robbie Fund Discovery Carts. These resources provide children waiting for an appointment with arts and crafts, toys, board games and medical play materials.
Project Open Book
When Debbie Guerin pushes her red cart filled with the latest Clifford, Dora, Captain Underpants and Lizzy McGuire books down the hallways of Children's Memorial, her visit is often the high point of the day for the hospital's young patients — especially those with serious illnesses or undergoing difficult treatments.
Guerin's visits are made possible by the Project Open Book program, a collaboration between Children's Memorial and the Chicago chapter of the national non-profit organization Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), funded in part by Cubs Care and a $250,000 gift from the McCormick Tribune Foundation. About 12,000 new books are distributed to children at the hospital each year.
Several times a week Guerin, the Chicago-area program coordinator for RIF, visits the outpatient areas in both the main hospital and the dedicated outpatient center at Clark and Deming Streets, also in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. She's often accompanied by volunteers from the hospital's Founders' Board and the Northwest Suburban Guild, an affiliated organization of the Children's Memorial Foundation.
The project's goal is to encourage literacy among young children. Children select their own books, which they are allowed to keep. For those undergoing complex procedures and tests, choosing their own books allows them to feel they have some control over their lives. For information about Project Open Book, call 773.880.3273.
Catch the Reading Bug
Our Catch the Reading Bug program was designed to not only promote literacy, but to trigger a dialogue between patients, families and staff, about the joys of reading.
The program works in conjuction with other hospital literacy programs, like Project Open Book and Reach Out and Read, in raising awareness, sponsoring book drives and giveaways, and working to create a culture of reading within the hospital.
Each night, patients can tune into Children's Memorial's Skylight TV for to watch our Bed-time Stories segment. The program feature celebrities, doctors and staff reading from beloved children's books. Most recently, several members of the Chicago Cubs stopped by to read from their favorite children's books.