A new study has highlighted the importance of play for children who are battling serious illnesses.

According to US researchers, play is also important for the siblings of sick children.

The team from the University of Cincinnati looked at medically-themed play among children with a range of health issues, including cancer, craniofacial abnormalities and serious kidney issues.

The study then focused on five children with chronic illnesses, 14 siblings of children with chronic illnesses and six children who were not sick and did not have sick siblings.

The children who were in hospital were all given medically-themed toys, such as toy ambulances, miniature hospital beds, stethoscopes, arm casts and intravenous (IV) lines.

Their siblings also had access to these toys.

The sick children were aged between two and 10 and their siblings were aged between three and 10.

The study found that the children tended to use play to work through their fears, but all were hopeful of recovery.

"No one in the dramatisations died, but in some cases, siblings would want to be sick too, so that they could receive attention from their parents," explained Prof Laura Nabors of the University of Cincinnati.

The researchers found that the children were fearful of having their blood taken, as they did not understand that the body can replenish its blood supply and viewed this as something that was simply being taken out of their body.

Furthermore, some children ‘dramatised their stories by depicting doctors as being evil'. This indicated the fear some children had of medical professionals.

When it came to the siblings, their imaginative play showed that some of them definitely felt ‘left out' when it came to the attention their parents were showing their sick brother or sister. They sometimes expressed loneliness and a need for attention.

However all the play scenarios, whether via the sick child or their sibling, would always end with a full recovery.

"I really believe that young children are marked for resilience and that will be explored in our future research," Prof Nabors commented.

Meanwhile, the group of six children who were not sick and did not have sick siblings were found to play ‘dramatically different, without rich play experiences and themes indicating that they were working through traumatic experiences'.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing.