Designing Play to Support Hospitalized Children

Play as a form of complementary care is increasingly considered to support sick children with their hospital experience. Prior work around digital play is mostly focusing on distracting the child from the hospital experience. In contrast, we propose an alternative approach. We seek to engage the children with the hospital experience through play that utilizes the hospital environment and materials. We present findings from two hospital play workshops with 23 children with severe diseases. Based on these findings, we derive four lenses (reframing, ownership, privilege, body) through which researchers can examine these types of play experiences. We then use these lenses to articulate six practical strategies to aid designers in developing play that supports hospitalized children. Ultimately, our work extends our understanding of how play can be designed as a form of complementary care.