ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Deborah B. Vilas and Jon Luongo introduce us to a particularly creative way of engaging playfully with children in health care settings by essentially creating hands-on, three-dimensional toys and tools that invite understanding, coping, and healing. They help us to appreciate that when child life specialists teach other health care providers to tinker with loose parts in their interactions with children, they further the collaborative spirit of the maker movement. And as everything in health care is being tightened up, screwed down, rendered shipshape and evidence-based, we must leave room for loose parts.
