Child Life Specialist

Serious illness affects everyone in the home, including the children who are watching it unfold. They notice the whispered conversations, the closed doors, the changes in routines. They may not have the words to ask what is happening, but they feel the worry in the room.

Meanwhile, you may be thinking, “How do I explain this without scaring them? What do I say if they ask if someone is going to die? What if I say the wrong thing?”

AlēvCare Hospice is the only hospice in our service area with a full-time Child Life Specialist. This role exists for one reason: to support children and teens when serious illness or loss touches their world.

Get Specialized Support for Children and Teens
Call (469) 630-2538 to speak with our hospice team

Why Children and Teens Need Their Own Support

Kids and teens experience serious illness differently from adults. They may:

• Overhear medical words they don’t understand
• Fill in the gaps with their own (often scarier) stories
• Worry they caused the illness or could “catch it”
• Act out, withdraw, or seem “fine” on the surface while hurting inside
  At the same time, parents and caregivers are stretched thin—trying to manage appointments, emotions, and everyday responsibilities while protecting the children they love.

A Child Life Specialist bridges that gap, giving young people language, tools, and safe places to process what is happening.

What a Child Life Specialist in North Texas Does

Our Child Life Specialist is a specially trained professional who focuses on the emotional and developmental needs of children and teens in the middle of serious illness and grief.

At AlēvCare Hospice, this support includes:

• Age-appropriate education about illness, hospice, and death
• Therapeutic play, art, and activities to help express feelings
• Preparation for visits, changes, or difficult moments, like seeing a loved one in a hospital bed
• Support before and after a death, including grief follow-up
• Collaboration with the hospice team so care for kids and teens is integrated, not an afterthought

This role is not required by Medicare and not reimbursed by insurance. We fund it because it is the right thing for families.

Who the Child Life Specialist Supports

Our Child Life Specialist works with:

• Children and teens, roughly ages 4 through early adulthood
• Siblings of patients
• Children and teens who are children or grandchildren of the patient
• Other young family members closely connected to the person who is ill

Support can happen in your home, in a facility where your loved one lives, alongside parents, grandparents, or other caregivers, or one-on-one with the child or teen when appropriate, and every interaction is shaped around the child’s age, personality, and comfort level.

How We Help Parents and Caregivers

Parents and caregivers often tell us, “I don’t know what to say,” or, “I’m afraid I’ll make it worse.”

Our Child Life Specialist supports you, too, by:

• Helping you find honest, age-appropriate language
• Suggesting what to share now and what to save for later
• Coaching you for difficult conversations or questions
• Offering ideas for maintaining connection, even as illness progresses
• Providing resources and activities you can use between visits

You remain the most important person in your child’s life. We simply give you tools so you can walk through this with more confidence and less fear.

What a Child Life Specialist Visit Looks Like

Visits are designed to feel safe, gentle, and natural, not clinical or forced.

A visit might include:

• Playing with toys, drawing, or using art supplies while talking about what is happening
• Using books, pictures, or simple explanations to talk about illness or death
• Practicing what to expect when visiting a loved one who looks or acts differently
• Creating memory items like handprints, letters, or photo projects
• Checking in on how school, friendships, and daily life are being affected

Children do not have to sit still, talk like an adult, or “do therapy” for support to be meaningful. Much of the work happens through play, stories, and everyday conversation.

When To Ask for Child Life Support

You do not have to wait for a crisis to involve the Child Life Specialist. Support earlier in the journey can prevent confusion and fear from building up.

It may be time to ask for Child Life support when:

• Children or teens are asking questions you struggle to answer
• Kids seem more clingy, withdrawn, angry, or “too good”
• You are unsure what they have heard, seen, or assumed
• A significant change is coming (a new diagnosis, a big decline, hospice admission, or a death)
• You simply feel in your gut that they need extra support

You can request a Child Life visit through your nurse, social worker, or by calling our office.

Why This Service Matters

This service matters because when children and teens are left to make sense of serious illness on their own, they may quietly blame themselves or feel responsible, start to feel excluded, confused, or unimportant, and show behavior changes that are misunderstood or overlooked. Without support, their grief can become more complicated over time, shaping how they remember this season and how they carry loss into the future.

With a Child Life Specialist involved, families often see:

• Kids who feel safer asking questions
• Fewer misconceptions and hidden fears
• Deeper, more honest connection between children and caregivers
• Healthier grief and coping in the months and years ahead

This kind of support can shape how a young person carries this experience for the rest of their life.