A comparison of play behaviors in two child life program variations

The purpose of this naturalistic study was to describe the play of children in hospital playrooms and to determine whether the type of child life program focus (i.e., playroom/group vs. nonplayroom/individual) impacts on the frequency and types of play behaviors exhibited. Despite differences in hours of availability, length of experience of staff, complexity of play spaces, and number of activities, the type of program focus was not found to affect significantly play frequency or type. There were, however, trends for more educative and therapeutic play to occur in the playroom-focused setting. Instead, child variables of gender and length of hospitalization were related to types of play exhibited, and the type of illness and whether the child was previously hospitalized were related to certain nonplay behaviors. Implications are drawn for additional study of play in child life contexts.