Games and Workbooks
Pediatric Oncology: A Tour for New Patients
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ShopTalk
ShopTalk is a therapeutic game designed for children living with cancer or another serious illness.
It was created by Drs. Cindy Mamalian (an artist and psychologist) and Lori Wiener to help therapists lead conversations with pediatric patients about difficult emotional issues related to the illness that has affected their lives (ages 7 to 16 years). ShopTalk players visit 10 different “shops” around the board, choosing one of 6 “gifts” from each store to place in their individual shopping bag when they choose to answer the question. The shops are named according to different themes: The Ball’s in Your Court sports store, for example, allows players to explore how they would respond to various social scenarios during treatment.
ShopTalk is available in three versions, one for pediatric cancer patients, one for their siblings, and one for children whose parent have cancer. All questions in both versions of the game are written in Spanish as well as in English. Therapists who are interested in obtaining a copy of the game should contact Dr. Wiener directly at wienerl@mail.nih.gov.
This is My World
This workbook was designed as a psychotherapeutic tool for therapists to use when working with children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with a chronic or potentially life threatening illness. The pages within the workbook contain writing, drawing, crossword puzzles, and other fun activities that address items such as family, friends, favorite activities, coping, and loss. Children and their families enjoy going back years later to read what they had written about their journey of living with their illness. This workbook was designed as a psychotherapeutic tool for therapists to use when working with children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with a chronic or potentially life threatening illness.
This book was written for families who have a child with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). It tells the story of a child who is learning about having NF1 in words that children can understand and then finds the courage to share the information with her class. The book has activities for the child to engage in, a glossary of terms, and tips for teachers.
To help address children and caregivers’ need for emotional support during pediatric cancer treatment, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (led by Dr. Meghan Marsac) developed the Cellie Cancer Coping Kit(Cellie Kit). The Cellie Kit is a developmentally-targeted (ages 6-12 years old), research-informed tool designed to help children and parents cope with cancer treatment. It provides evidence-based, cognitive-behavioral coping techniques for a range of stressors. The Cellie Kit can be used across settings (at home, at clinic, during procedures) and providers (nurses, doctors, child life specialists, therapists). The Cellie Kit includes a stuffed toy (Cellie), coping cards, and a caregiver book. Cellie is used for engagement and integrated into the coping tips. The Cancer Coping Cards are a set of 30 cards which provide kids with over 100 tips for dealing with cancer-related stressors such as medical procedures, hospital visits, and feelings of fear and uncertainty. The Caregiver Book offers tips for parents to help children with cancer cope, as well as advice for dealing with parents’ own cancer-related challenges (e.g., caring for siblings, working with the medical team). For more information about the Cellie Cancer Coping Kit, e-mail cellie@email.chop.edu.
A computer game developed by HopeLab, a non-profit organization, for adolescents with cancer.
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