Exploring with a medical play doll. Design of this puppet was commissioned by WE C Hope child life specialist Morgan Livingstone, for work with Rb patients, incorporating a removable eye.
Child Life Directed Children’s Program
We look forward to welcoming many parents and survivors to One Retinoblastoma World in Hawaii. We are delighted to provide a full program of activities on 15, 16 and 17 October for children diagnosed with retinoblastoma, their siblings, and children of adult survivors.
The program will be led by Certified Child Life Specialist Morgan Livingstone, a dedicated member of the WE C Hope team, in collaboration with colleagues across the region. As well as free play for all ages, a planned program will include activities designed to help children understand their experience of eye cancer, their emotional responses, medical procedures and living with a special eye.
Registering Your Children
All children are registered free of charge. However, you must provide full name and age details for each child you wish to bring to the program, as requested on your Family/Survivor registration form. If we do not receive this information, your child will not be registered, and may not be accepted to the children’s program. This ensures we can prepare well, and the children in our program will be safe throughout the event.
In-person registration has now closed, including the children’s program in Hawaii.
Program Activities
From WE C Hope’s blog: Child Life Programs: Play With Purpose at Retinoblastoma Gatherings
Discover how child life can radically improve a family’s Rb experience, and how our Child Life programs at events like One Rb World are important.
2020 & 2021 Virtual Child Life Sessions
The American Academy of Pediatrics says Child life is vital care, not an optional extra, but it’s lacking in many children’s retinoblastoma experience. See how we included child life for kids in our virtual pandemic-restricted meetings in 2020 and 2021.
The following selection of activities from past programs are examples of what children will find on offer in Honolulu
Medical Play
Play is the language of childhood, so we have planned a wonderful playful exploration of common medical materials for children. They can dress up in scrubs and “BE” the doctor, blow bubbles with sedation masks, create syringe splatter paintings, and make bracelets with plastic IV tubing. Medical play allows children a safe and fun way to familiarize themselves with medical materials in a non-threatening way, and gain mastery over their own medical experiences – all while having FUN!
Sensory Play
Sensory play includes activities that stimulate children’s senses through touch, smell, taste, movement, balance, sight and hearing. Our fun and interactive sensory activities include making slime / putty, creating our own musical instruments using recycled materials, a blindfolded tasting station to learn about how our taste buds work (sour, sweet, bitter), and amazing body trick activities children can learn and do with friends and family anytime! All these activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.
All About Feelings
Feelings focused activities give children and young adults a chance to learn about and explore the importance of ALL feelings! Children will make their own Punch Pillow to take home, and take part in a fun game of target practice using mini Marshmallows. Each child can create their own feelings mask using a variety of art materials. They will have the opportunity to participate in some “kitchen chemistry” while learning about how important it is to share our feelings with someone we trust, and what can happen to our body when we bottle-up upset feelings.
EYE Love Art
A wide variety of art activities that all focus on eyes, including collage posters, papier mâché, photo/video art, and clay creations. Creating eye-themed art pieces gives children a platform to share their concerns about their own eyes in a safe environment, to ask questions, learn about eye care, release anxieties and develop new coping skills.
Self-Published Books:
This exciting and engaging transformative literacy activity encourages children and teenagers to create a narrative book about all the things that make them an amazing individual. With some guiding statements such as “I am….” and “I can…”, children are able to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences in narrative form, adding their own images through drawing, collaging and scrapbook art materials.
Eyeball gift bags, created by children during an EyeLoveArt project.
In Loving Memory of Lisa Hester
Our entire Child Life Program this year will be dedicated to the memory of Lisa Hester, our much-loved WE C Hope USA Director, who died unexpectedly on July 31, 2024.
Learning from One Rb World and other WE C Hope training opportunities, Lisa keenly advocated for child life supports, both in her son’s medical care, and for all children with Rb. She was looking forward to speaking on the subject at One Rb World in Hawaii, and to bringing her children to the conference to benefit from this child life program.
Lisa leaves a huge void in our team, community, and collective heart. We continue our commitment to advance child life for retinoblastoma across the USA and around the world in her memory. We invite you to join us by donating to the Lisa Hester Child Life Memorial Fund.
Lisa on our blog: Ohana: The Beating Heart of One Retinoblastoma World 2024
Lisa on our blog: A Day Well Spent – California Family Day
We Bring Child Life to Africa
Regardless of where they live in the world, all children with eye cancer experience invasive procedures and stressful events throughout their medical care. Those experiences can impact their ability to cope, inhibit their development and negatively affect their health and well-being throughout life. Child life supports effective healthcare and reduces trauma for children around the world.
Morgan Livingstone CCLS, who will lead our Child Life Program at One Rb World in Hawaii describes how WE C Hope brings hope through Child Life to children and their families in Africa.
This video and blog article showcase the work of our child life team at the training program in Eldoret. The first child life training program in Africa, it remains the only place on the entire continent to develop professional skills in this vital area of paediatric medical care.
More About One Rb World 2024
Hawaii 2024 | 2024 Program | Child Life | Conference Hotel | Registration | Partnerships | Travel Facts | Discover Hawaii – Stay Longer | Kuleana (Responsible Travel)
