the hospital can be a scary place for kids especially when they have to stay there but at St Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson a program called child life is offering their youngest patients just a little bit of comfort and fun while they bravely battle their diagnosis earlier this week I had a chance to visit the child life department at St Joseph's and to meet a couple of the bright-eyed little girls it's impacting when we had to put the shot again we should do the shot again do you want to use the real one this time you can help me all right we'll do it together okay so it's not so scary eight-year-old Sophia espinal thinks she's playing and she is but she's also working through her fear of needles something she has to deal with now as a patient here at St Joseph's Children's Hospital in Patterson that's where the child life Specialists come in the typical reaction is they're going to come into the hospital they're going to be anxious they're going to be scared because nobody wants to be here it's a scary place so our job is to try to make it not so scary the child life Specialists are trained to care for the emotional needs of a child in a healthcare setting Isabella colonico explains how she would work with a child who's just learned they have cancer from the minute that they are diagnosed I'm there with the family to help them understand what cancer is we have books videos and dolls that mimic exactly what they're going to go through and just like with Elmo they help the kids understand the process through a practice called medical play we use medical play every day in our careers and it's a really fun way to act actually use the real life medical supplies and we explained step by step in a developmentally appropriate way the sensory things so we're going through each step there's going to be that rubber band on there and yeah it can be really tight is it worse than the needle or is the needle worse the worst the worst is the needle yeah just validating all the different feelings and you know we don't lie there is going to be a poke and sometimes it does hurt but we offer choices when we do that so offering choices is the most important part where they can gain that sense of control back maybe his lungs no no just his heart you're in charge you're the doctor the Specialists spend a lot of time just playing with the kids too to help them feel less like they're in a hospital and more like they're at home oh no wow good job and they have a number of supports for kids with sensory and other needs this is a vector machine it is a sensory machine that we use for actually a very wide variety of patients not just what sensory needs but it allows the kids to feel more comfortable while they're here really to heal the child needs to be healed in various aspects right so not just the body but the mind and the spirit and that's what child life does I feel like really excited and happy because I like being here because it's really fun because you get to do whatever you want and they're in this and everybody's really nice here perhaps most unique about this program it's not Insurance based so it operates solely on donations right now it's fully funded through the philanthropic support of an accounting firm called sacs and Parsippany being able to support all of the resources that they need to take care of children so it's the the crafts it's the special therapies like art therapy and and music therapy it's uh you know having uh characters come in it looks like toys for holidays so Christmas the kids get to go home with a big bag of toys on birthdays we get to have big celebrations and even working in the ICU we get even if it the kids are too sick to play we have colorful blankets and nice pillows and to end this month of Childhood Cancer Awareness Saks is holding a 4K walk this weekend anyone can register so there's a a run and there's a walk and there's also some kids dashes as well the walk is tomorrow in Parsippany some of the patients from St Joseph's are actually able to attend it's how the hospital ensures that its Child Life program continues to reach all the kids who need it support for the medical report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association