ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates invaluable role of play in supporting children's emotional health and well-being in a medical environment. It provides that using appropriate techniques and carefully selected play materials can normalize clinical environment and enable children to gain a sense of autonomy and control in a potentially distressing and unfamiliar situation. The chapter considers how simply experiencing familiar play can increase resilience and reduce the distress of illness and admission to hospital. It focuses on therapeutic interventions such as preparation for theatre using puppets; distraction techniques such as bubble blowing and music; the post-operative value of using dream sheets and stories; and games to encourage medical compliance. The chapter includes theoretical underpinnings of these therapeutic techniques, and examples demonstrating their beneficial effects. Therapeutic play focuses on process of play as a coping mechanism for children to master adverse experiences such as hospitalisation. Children themselves have described play as their best method of coping, when they are ill or in hospital.
