Karen Lucas first encountered the video gaming cart in an elevator at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center during the week of Thanksgiving in 2022. She was on her way to visit her son, Quinn, when she ran into Eric Clarkson, child life gaming specialist, who was chatting with a volunteer.
“I thought the cart was cool and that I would love that for Quinn, but I didn’t think it was possible because of his dexterity,” she recalls. Quinn, 20, is nonverbal with complex medical issues. He plays a basic Nintendo game at home using one hand, but he has never touched the Xbox Series S console that sits in his room at the Children’s Center.
Then, Clarkson knocked on Quinn’s door. After trying various controllers, they found one that seemed comfortable and launched into a game of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “It was as though the ‘cool kid’ was asking Quinn to hang out,” Karen Lucas recalls. “The amazing part was how well Clarkson engaged Quinn while they played together. He narrated the play and was being funny. Quinn was laughing really hard. Clarkson made it feel normal for Quinn — like two buddies hanging out playing video games.”
While gaming consoles have been standard equipment in The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center building since it opened in 2012, a project is underway to replace the original Xbox 360s with the newest Xbox Series S, thanks in large part to Child’s Play Charity, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that has given more than $100,000 to the Children’s Center over the last eight years to fund technology and gaming.
Clarkson, the child life department’s first full-time gaming specialist, was hired two years ago. He oversees an extensive array of technology that includes Nintendo and Xbox consoles, as well as a mobile gaming cart laden with iPads, virtual reality headsets and more. He also manages three child life gaming volunteers, and problem-solves with physicians and child life staff members to make technology and gaming more accessible for young patients with complex health conditions.
“I find different accessibility controllers and figure out solutions when a diagnosis or surgery mean that a patient can’t play,” says Clarkson, whose background is in educational technology support. “Sometimes the gaming world can seem inaccessible to clinicians. I love being the bridge.” And of course, he plays games with patients — and frequently with their parents.
Child’s Play Charity funds gaming programs for more than 190 hospitals globally, notes Erick Blandin, pediatric gaming technology manager for the organization. He says Clarkson’s role at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center is groundbreaking.
“There are only about 50 people in the world with this position of gaming specialist, but it’s growing quickly,” Blandin says. “Our dream of having a gaming device in every patient room only works if there’s a tech expert on the hospital staff to support the equipment and gaming with patients.”
“Gaming is ubiquitous in kids’ play today,” Blandin adds. “Gaming in hospitals hits all the needs for distraction and preventing boredom.” He still remembers how bored he was while recovering from a childhood appendectomy until a nurse wheeled in a video cart. “Gaming offers a little moment of normalcy where kids can just play a game and be a kid again.”
That normalcy is healing, explains Patrice Brylske, director of child life services. “Play is vital for a child’s ability to cope when sick or injured. Our department provides access to toys, games, arts and crafts, and technology and video games. Without Child’s Play Charity, we would not have been able to move forward, room by room, with gaming systems. They see the joy that comes from having fun.”