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Therapeutic and Developmental Support Services
Our goal is to provide quality comprehensive therapeutic and developmental support services to ensure our patients and families have access to appropriate developmental experiences and the tools necessary to cope, heal and thrive in a medical environment.
Child Life and Creative Arts Program
Child Life Program
The Child Life and Creative Arts program at Blythedale Children’s Hospital is dedicated to helping infants, children and their families cope through their medical journey. Our team of Certified Child Life Specialists are trained in the developmental impact of illness, injury, trauma and hospitalization. We offer interventions that help to ease a child’s adjustment and experience to a hospital setting and health status. Our CCLS use a variety of approaches such as procedural preparation and support, medical and therapeutic play, as well as emotional and developmental support to promote healthy coping behaviors.
If interested in a Spring Semester Internship please contact Jeannine Florio, MS, CCLS, Assistant Director of Child Life and Creative Arts at childlifeinternship@blythedale.org or (914) 592-7555, ext. 71498. *Please note, we follow the ACLP's internship application requirements and process.
Music Therapy
The Music Therapy Program at Blythedale Children’s Hospital is offered through our Child Life Program. Using a variety of approaches to engage children in musical experiences, the program encourages and supports relaxation, pain relief, and emotional expression, as well as improved coping skills. Our Music Therapy program works on a referral basis and runs in conjunction with our Therapeutic Recreation Program.
Therapeutic Recreation
The Therapeutic Recreation Department provides both treatment and leisure services to inpatients, and serves to aid patients in their rehabilitative recovery through goal-oriented recreational activities. These activities are based on each child's individual preferences and abilities, and aim to restore and improve functional skills. The department’s goal is to facilitate the development, maintenance and expression of an appropriate leisure lifestyle for every patient.
Individualized bedside Therapeutic Recreation services are offered to patients who are unable to attend general recreation programming. Group programs are offered seven days a week. For more information, please contact Debbie Sicari.
Developmental Support
Blythedale understands the importance of addressing the unique social and developmental needs of medically complex children while hospitalized. Each unit has a dedicated team which strives to create nurturing environments and daily play experiences. Ensuring that each child has access to vital developmental experiences supporting overall health and wellbeing.
Contact Information:
- Kelsey Mayer, M.S., C.C.L.S., Director of Therapeutic and Developmental Support Services
- KMayer@blythedale.org
- (914) 592-7555 x 71463
Therapeutic and Developmental Support Services Staff

All of our Child Life Specialists hold active certification through the Association of Child Life Professionals.
Treatments We Support
Acquired and Traumatic Brain Injury
Blythedale Children’s Hospital is a longtime leader in the treatment of children recovering from brain injury including Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), post-infectious diseases such as meningitis or Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (ANMDAR), brain tumors and stroke. The extraordinary...
Learn moreAssistive Technology
Assistive Technology expands opportunities for children with special needs to increase participation in school settings, build social interactions, and access their environments in a variety of specialized ways. Blythedale’s dedicated team includes Assistive Technology experts from speech...
Learn moreComplex Wound and Burn Management
The child’s clinical team works collaboratively with parents and other caregivers to identify developmentally appropriate medical and therapeutic goals. This team is also committed to meeting the psychological and social challenges that accompany burn and wound treatment and recovery,...
Learn moreComplex Post-Surgical Rehabilitation
Patients are admitted for acute medical and rehabilitative inpatient care following major trauma (such as head and spinal injuries, extensive soft tissue trauma/burns, vascular injuries, major muscle/ligament injuries, amputations or fractures), extensive scoliosis surgery, selective dorsal...
Learn moreCancer Rehabilitation
A customized therapeutic regimen enables patients to regain their strength and function while undergoing or recovering from surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. We recognize the vital importance of an ongoing relationship with the child’s referring oncology team, and we participate...
Learn moreCardiac Rehabilitation
As more infants and children are undergoing complex cardiac surgical procedures to repair congenital conditions such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, tetralogy of fallot, transposition of the great vessels, coarctation of the aorta, or cardiac injury due to myocarditis or traumatic injury,...
Learn moreComplex Chronic Conditions
Many children come to Blythedale with multiple, complex chronic conditions that impact their function. These chronic conditions - including cerebral palsy, CHARGE syndrome, congenital and chromosomal abnormalities, severe epilipsy - can complicate recovery after surgeries, acute illnesses or...
Learn moreNeuromuscular Disorders
The goal of our Neuromuscular Disorders program is to help children maximize their functional abilities through comprehensive medical care and rehabilitation, utilizing state-of-the-art technology, environmental modifications and adaptive equipment. Following an intake evaluation, the child’s...
Learn morePost Acute Neonatal Care
Whether requiring ongoing medical management and rehabilitation due to extreme prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, congenital cardiac disease, pulmonary hypertension , hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, short gut syndrome, feeding disorders or other complications occurring in the neonatal period...
Learn morePre/Post Organ & Stem Cell Transplant
These children require the highest level attention of a multidisciplinary team of pediatricians, pediatric physiatrists, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists and physical, occupational, speech and feeding therapists familiar with the problems inherent in recovery from and living with a transplant. We...
Learn morePulmonary Hypertension
Blythedale’s expertise in caring for the most medically fragile of children is evident in our Pulmonary Hypertension rehabilitation program. Children come to Blythedale directly from the Intensive Care Unit while receiving intravenous, inhaled, subcutaneous or oral medications for pulmonary...
Learn morePulmonary Rehabilitation
The goal of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation program is weaning from technology completely or to the least invasive support to facilitate the family's transition to home. Parents are involved in the care of their child every step of the way, and learn proper use of equipment, care of tracheostomy,...
Learn moreSpecialized Feeding
Children referred to Blythedale for Therapeutic Feeding have wide-ranging conditions including prematurity, short-gut syndrome, brain injury, oral-motor dysfunction, aversion behaviors, cognitive deficits or post-surgical complications. Services for these children include evaluations for both...
Learn moreTherapeutic Recreation: Healing Through Play
"We get to use play as a form of medicine." Blythedale's certified therapeutic recreation specialists (aka "the finders of fun", "the laborers of leisure", "the realizers of recovery") create customized, goal-oriented recreational activities to put the "fun" back into functional skills for inpatients and residents of The Steven and Alexandra Cohen Pediatric Long Term Care Pavilion.
A Day in the Life of Mathew Miller
Thirteen-year-old Mathew was well-known as a baseball prodigy in the Little League community. A versatile player, the talented teen hit more than 70 home runs in one year alone. The road that led him to Blythedale is heart-breaking, but his tenacity and courage in the face of adversity has led to an extraordinary recovery.
Making Music Matter: Therapy Program Promotes Hope, Self-Expression & Socialization
Grab a guitar, bang a bongo or simply sing along with our licensed music therapists as they promote and maintain mental, physical and emotional health for all Blythedale Children’s Hospital patients and residents in The Steven and Alexandra Cohen Long Term Care Pavilion.