Helping Children Heal Through Art Therapy

Child’s Own Studio began with a simple gift for a 4-year-old boy and bloomed into a full-fledged craft business, which has made hundreds of unique “softies” – stuffed toys for children based on their own drawings.

Child’s Own works to celebrate a child’s imagination by building handcrafted one-of-a-kind soft toys, each created by the individual imagination of a child. Several craft businesses around the country have developed to create similar collaborative art with children.

Although softies (sometimes also called “stuffies”) can be made for a number of reasons – encouraging creativity, sparking imagination, offering comfort, building a keepsake – the craft has great potential to help children cope with life-threatening illnesses, or to heal through grief. Art therapy can be a fantastic way for young children to express how they are feeling when dealing with the stress and pain of illness or loss, and softies take that therapy a step further – by creating a comforting toy or keepsake out of a child’s therapeutic artwork.

Since softies are one hundred percent unique – each one custom-made for a single child – you can let your imagination take charge, including elements that help your child best. Softies can be made from the fabric of the old clothes of a loved one, or perhaps a comforting blanket that your child has grown out of. They can include materials that have special meaning to your child, to create something that will comfort them in hard times, while bringing their unique creation to life.