Young patients act out procedures to help come to terms with their treatments

To help children come to terms with their treatment, hospitals across the country are having young patients act out medical procedures on dolls. Their are more than 400 such programs in the United States and Canada, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The idea is to lessen the terror that kids may feel before a scary procedure, and research shows that structured play can reduce stress. In the short term, specialists say that working with a petrified child before a minor procedure can also help avoid sedation.