Pediatric healthcare design: 4 ways to engage children, reduce stress, and improve care
April 15, 2026
Playful elements can enhance pediatric healthcare environments for children, parents, and caregivers. How to design distractions to boost wellbeing.
A version of this blog first appeared as “Look at that!” in the Design Quarterly, Issue 27.
How can pediatric healthcare design make a difference? Here’s one way: Distraction.
Charlie, age 7, has a rare form of epilepsy and has been hospitalized half a dozen times. His family is accustomed to lengthy hospital stays. Welcoming spaces and kid-friendly touches at Texas Children’s Hospital—North Austin have a significant impact on the whole family’s wellbeing and comfort. Charlie loves the ceiling tile art in the emergency patient rooms, with an aqua blue river flowing past owls, ladybugs, trees, and kites, and colorful canoes and kayaks floating downriver. What an adventure, to be in that yellow kayak passing through the woods. He adores a large wall mural with an orange cat jumping, a happy pig, and a friendly dog and cow cavorting. Sometimes at night, he enjoys curling up on the windowsill of his room and watching the lights twinkling and cars passing by below.
Charlie’s favorite distractions might be the service dogs, especially the big yellow lab wearing a bandana. The family has been able to bring their own dog, Midas, in for a visit, too. Charlie’s whole family loves the paw prints, dog art, and the children’s pup drawings displayed in the hospital hallways.
In creating and validating positive distractions for pediatric healthcare design, it really helps to view the hospital visit from the perspective of the users. A child’s point of view shows us where distraction can be the most effective.
Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital–Miller Family Campus in Lehi, Utah, celebrates the state’s natural beauty. Each of the five floors focuses on one element—lake, desert, alpine, sky, and space—through interior finishes and experiential graphic design. (Photo: Brad Feinknopf)
When it comes to kids, distraction is one of the oldest tricks in the playbook. Simple, positive distractions can help transform unpleasant experiences into moments of joy. Think about the effects of colorful bandages that feature cartoon characters to an injured child.
We can apply similar logic to design at a larger scale. When it comes to the built environment, distraction can help or hurt the intended purpose of the environment. This is especially true in healthcare settings, where alarms, clinical noises, unsettling sights or smells, and intense emotions can dominate. These factors can amplify anxiety, fear, and worry. But distraction can also play a positive role in pediatric healthcare design.
Distraction alone doesn’t heal. But it can aid the healing process by addressing the mental wellbeing of an individual. A 2018 article for The Center for Health Design said it well: “The environment cannot cause healing to occur but can facilitate engagement in behaviors and emotions that support healing; the environment can induce physical and emotional responses such as happiness, joy, and relaxation; and the built environment can enhance individual control and functionality—all of which are antecedents to healing.”
Positive distraction can relieve stress and anxiety. It can support calm behavior. It also helps with sleep regulation and pain perception. Clinical studies are starting to associate positive distraction with a reduced need for narcotics and other drugs.
How does positive distraction in pediatric healthcare design help pediatric patients and their families?
1. Positive distraction benefits children psychologically.
A child’s experience within a pediatric healthcare environment will likely shape their perception of healing, wellness, and healthcare for years. Children say they experience “helplessness, loss of identify and control, lack of social support, and accompanying fear and pain” during a medical event. Left unaddressed, this can lead to symptoms like depression and anxiety.
One might think a tablet or smart phone could provide the necessary distraction. But research has shown that too much screen time can negatively affect the wellbeing of children and adolescents. So, we want to look at alternatives for distraction in the healthcare environment.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta - Arthur M. Blank Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Natural light is an ideal distraction for children in a pediatric healthcare setting. (Architect of Record: Esa; Photo: Jeremiah Hull)
2. Positive distraction reduces parent/caregiver stress.
A child’s emergency visit, procedure, or hospital stay is among the most stressful experiences a parent can face. A parent can enter fight-or-flight mode, resulting in negative perceptions of healthcare environments and staff.
If the space can positively distract a parent, it can lower their stress and anxiety. This can help them make better decisions, talk with clinicians, and regulate their emotions.
3. Positive distraction transforms healthcare delivery into a better, more memorable experience.
Thoughtful pediatric healthcare design does more than support clinical care. It can also reduce stress and help children and families feel at ease. When spaces offer positive, engaging distractions—especially in waiting areas—patients report calmer, more comfortable experiences. Research shows these moments matter. When care feels less intimidating, people are more likely to return when they need help. And this supports better health outcomes over time.
Positive memories shape how people engage with healthcare. When children and families associate care with comfort and reassurance, they are more likely to return when they need it. Designers play a key role in creating these moments. Through thoughtful pediatric healthcare design and positive distraction, they help turn clinical visits into meaningful, uplifting experiences that families recall long after they leave.
4. Positive distraction sets the care team up for success.
Providing positive distraction allows the clinical and para-clinical pediatric team members to shine. It’s easier for them to provide care for a more relaxed and pleasantly distracted child than one who is stressed and fearful. Therefore, adjacencies are important. Positive distractions should be connected to well-designed, flexible spaces for care. In this way, our designs can help the team weave positive distraction into the fabric of day-to-day care.
Children engage with their surroundings through sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Incorporating positive distraction in the design process
When designing in positive distraction, it needs to start early. The design team must collaborate with providers to explore what positive distractions on their project could look like. They should build these elements into the functional program and champion them in the business plan. To harness the potential of positive distraction requires, be intentional and assign it a value and square footage.
It is important to discuss the benefits of positive distraction because it requires extra programming. It extends beyond code requirements and clinical function. Programming these third spaces into a pediatric healthcare environment needs full buy-in from clinical and facility leadership. Why? That way it’s protected from value-engineering cuts in later phases.
4 ways to use positive distraction in pediatric healthcare design
1. Create a sense of normalcy for patients and family.
A hospital is full of unfamiliar routines, sounds, and equipment. Making things feel normal can be a powerful way to comfort children and their families. A homelike atmosphere, especially within a patient’s room, has proven to ease stress and anxiety while fostering a sense of security.
Design solutions can provide agency and choice. Options include:
- Dedicated zones for patients, families, and staff
- Enhanced visual privacy and soundproofing
- Controls to adjust temperature and lighting provide
Muted colors and comfortable furnishings create a familiar and welcoming vibe. Access to daylight, large windows, and views of nature can help regulate circadian rhythms and provide moments of calm. Even quiet corners for reading or areas with tables where families can gather to play games reinforce a sense of normal life within the hospital setting.
Spaces that feel warm, personal, and connected to nature offer a sense of stability and peace. They help improve mental health and wellbeing while supporting a child’s recovery process. Med-gas panels and alcoves/closets help to hide “scary” medical equipment, as does moving monitors/alarms out of a patient’s room to the hallway or nurses’ station. Warm design details and finishes give the interiors of patient rooms a homelike feel.
Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin Campus.
2. Engage the senses to help patients, parents, and staff.
Children engage with their surroundings through sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Research shows that a rich, multisensory environment in pediatric healthcare spaces is closely linked to improved quality of life for patients. It can also increase satisfaction among parents and staff.
These environments offer moments of discovery, wonder, and calm. Sensory design can take many forms:
- Tactile furniture finishes
- Meandering pathways along the floor
- Vibrant wall colors and patterns
- 2D or 3D art installations
- Playful environmental graphics
- Interactive sound and lighting features
Biophilic design features bring the outdoors in. A colleague remembers being in a waiting room with his child and staring at a decorative light with lava-bubbles floating up and down, like a flashback to 1972. “That light really helped all of us,” he said. “It almost put us into a meditative state.”
Another example? The curved feature wall between the lobby bistro and the main dining room at Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital stimulates visitors with motion-activated lights. As children walk along the wall the adjacent vertical light strips respond with changing colors and intensity.
3. Encourage play to reduce intimidation.
Children develop through free play. It aids in their social, emotional, and cognitive development. We can design pediatric spaces that support a child’s desire for free play and self-discovery. Designers can make play opportunities inclusive, with technology and adaptive equipment that allows for wide participation. Playful elements can also be integrated into treatment areas. This can help transfort intimidating spaces into environments for imagination and comfort.
For example, at the Intermountain hospital’s Lehi campus, an outer space-themed MRI suite can turn a daunting machine into an adventure to explore. Research has shown that engaging a child’s imagination can reduce pain, ease distress, and promote calmness during diagnostic and treatment procedures. Getting outside has health benefits, too. And the outdoor areas at Arthur M. Blank Hospital–Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta provide easy access to active play.
The astronaut-themed MRI room helps at the Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital–Miller Family Campus in Utah helps children distract themselves. Instead of entering a large, scary piece of equipment, they can imagine they are boarding a space shuttle. (Photo: Brad Feinknopf)
4. Make social connections in the hospital and back home.
In a hospital stay, a child is often abruptly separated from family, friends, and support systems. Adolescents, in particular, report strong feelings of isolation during hospitalization and crave ways for meaningful social connection, within the hospital and with their communities back home. Thoughtful spaces for socializing can support connections through music or art therapy, cooking classes, or game nights.
Sophie’s Place at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital serves as a music therapy and hangout space for teenagers. And Ryan Seacrest Studios are media centers embedded in pediatric hospitals where young patients can explore radio and TV production like real broadcasters.
When designing opportunities for socialization, consider the following:
- How can the design maximize opportunities for patients to access social support?
- Who is the audience and what is their demographic and health status?
- What types of interaction should the design encourage?
What do distractions in pediatric healthcare look like?
For designers, it’s often valuable to consider what small, daily distractions a child might miss out on during a hospital stay: being with friends at school, playing with peers on the playground, enjoying games with the family, or trying a new restaurant. How can design address these gaps in a child’s life while they are in a healthcare setting?
We see a variety of distractions in today’s leading pediatric healthcare facilities. These distractions can be simple, such as a themed floor that also assists in wayfinding for visitors. Engaging distractions can range from patient-friendly cinemas to accessible playgrounds, activity gyms to meditation spaces. Distraction areas can include art galleries, sensory rooms, performance stages, outdoor respite areas, children’s libraries, and even family “camping” areas.
The future of positive distraction is wide open.
