By Sandi Kahn Shelton, New Haven Register, 11/14/2005
NEW HAVEN - For a short time last Wednesday afternoon, there was a small miracle at the Children’s Hospital at Yale-New Haven. A group of nine hospitalized kids forgot their fear, their upcoming medical procedures and their homesickness and concentrated instead on a guy drawing a horse while he made squirrel noises.
The guy was Colin Coots of LeRoy, N.Y., and he came to the hospital as part of the Child Life Arts and Enrichment program, which is designed to help children express their feelings through art as they deal with their illnesses.
Coots, a soft-spoken grandfatherly man, sketched portraits while keeping up a gentle patter of conversation, and then handed out materials and encouraged the children to make their own pictures. After a few moments, most of the kids were drawing and quietly talking to each other about their experiences in the hospital.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the pediatrics unit, poet Aaron Jafferis of New Haven was visiting the bedsides of teens and inviting them to write with him.
“There are lots of different ways I work with teenagers,” says Jafferis, who’s been coming to the hospital every Wednesday afternoon for over a year. “They can just listen, or I can help them write down their own feelings. I play music for them. We talk.
“I have a whole range of activities and prompts to help them get started. What surprises me sometimes is that kids who may at first be fearful of expressing themselves just open up to the experience. It helps them get out what they’re feeling.”
Jafferis is one of 15 artists who come to the hospital on a regular basis, says Life Arts and Enrichment coordinator Janice Pasquale Baker, who started the program two years ago, knowing that kids who are hospitalized need not only the attention to their physical selves, but to their emotional and spiritual well-being, too.
By bringing artists right to the bedsides of the patients, she says, the Child Life Arts and Enrichment Program helps children cope with the range of feelings they’re experiencing and gives them a sense of control of their own lives. They’re given the freedom to express their sense of fun, as well as their fears of loss and separation, she says.
The program offers music therapy, storytelling, as well as hands-on art activities in woodworking, puppetry, jewelry-making, clay sculpture as well as poetry and drawing. Baker provides training for artists who are interested in working in this setting.
“It takes just the right kind of person,” she says. “Not only must the artist be sensitive to kids, but it’s important to be able to tolerate a certain level of chaos and emotional involvement, too. We have some wonderful people who give quite a bit.”
Jafferis says the experience of working with children has been very moving. “Poetry provides adolescents with a direct and personal way to process and understand their experience and also gives them a bridge that helps them remain connected to their lives outside of illness.”
Christine Clyde of Madison, whose 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth attended the workshop with Coots, says she’s been so impressed with the programs offered by the Child Life program. “They never forget here that they’re dealing with kids,” she says, “and that everything needs to be fun and interesting for them. They do everything to help the children make the best of their time here. Everyone has been so kind.”
"Kingdom at Lincoln High School set the bar for what the arts can do for the community." -Peter K. Ellsworth, President, The Legler Benbough Foundation
About Aaron
Aaron Jafferis is a hip hop poet and playwright. Read his bio, his CV, or contact him.
Artful Treatment
NEW HAVEN - For a short time last Wednesday afternoon, there was a small miracle at the Children’s Hospital at Yale-New Haven. A group of nine hospitalized kids forgot their fear, their upcoming medical procedures and their homesickness and concentrated instead on a guy drawing a horse while he made squirrel noises.
The guy was Colin Coots of LeRoy, N.Y., and he came to the hospital as part of the Child Life Arts and Enrichment program, which is designed to help children express their feelings through art as they deal with their illnesses.
Coots, a soft-spoken grandfatherly man, sketched portraits while keeping up a gentle patter of conversation, and then handed out materials and encouraged the children to make their own pictures. After a few moments, most of the kids were drawing and quietly talking to each other about their experiences in the hospital.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the pediatrics unit, poet Aaron Jafferis of New Haven was visiting the bedsides of teens and inviting them to write with him.
“There are lots of different ways I work with teenagers,” says Jafferis, who’s been coming to the hospital every Wednesday afternoon for over a year. “They can just listen, or I can help them write down their own feelings. I play music for them. We talk.
“I have a whole range of activities and prompts to help them get started. What surprises me sometimes is that kids who may at first be fearful of expressing themselves just open up to the experience. It helps them get out what they’re feeling.”
Jafferis is one of 15 artists who come to the hospital on a regular basis, says Life Arts and Enrichment coordinator Janice Pasquale Baker, who started the program two years ago, knowing that kids who are hospitalized need not only the attention to their physical selves, but to their emotional and spiritual well-being, too.
By bringing artists right to the bedsides of the patients, she says, the Child Life Arts and Enrichment Program helps children cope with the range of feelings they’re experiencing and gives them a sense of control of their own lives. They’re given the freedom to express their sense of fun, as well as their fears of loss and separation, she says.
The program offers music therapy, storytelling, as well as hands-on art activities in woodworking, puppetry, jewelry-making, clay sculpture as well as poetry and drawing. Baker provides training for artists who are interested in working in this setting.
“It takes just the right kind of person,” she says. “Not only must the artist be sensitive to kids, but it’s important to be able to tolerate a certain level of chaos and emotional involvement, too. We have some wonderful people who give quite a bit.”
Jafferis says the experience of working with children has been very moving. “Poetry provides adolescents with a direct and personal way to process and understand their experience and also gives them a bridge that helps them remain connected to their lives outside of illness.”
Christine Clyde of Madison, whose 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth attended the workshop with Coots, says she’s been so impressed with the programs offered by the Child Life program. “They never forget here that they’re dealing with kids,” she says, “and that everything needs to be fun and interesting for them. They do everything to help the children make the best of their time here. Everyone has been so kind.”