Overview:

Details the stages of development from infancy to adolescence, emphasizing the particular care that can be given to acknowledge these stages in a hospitalized child: infant patients need comfort and stimulation as well as feeding; toddlers should be safe while exercising their budding autonomy; preschoolers want to play, imitate and stretch their imaginations to solve problems; a school-age child may feel threatened by his immobility and will strive to be industrious, and adolescents crave peer interaction.