Current research indicates that hospitalized children may profit best from preparation for surgery that is individually suited to their particular way of responding to hospitalization. It is likely, however, that preparation treatments will be provided for children in groups. Therefore, an attempt has been made to design and test information and modeling procedures which can be presented to a group of children but also which can be subsequently individualized by parent and child to suit the child's needs. Four treatment groups were compared: (1) the first group received information in the form of a puppet show (the puppet told the children about aspects of hospitalization, including admission procedures, the pre-surgery medical examination, anesthesia, surgery and recovery); (2) the second group saw the puppet presentation and a film about a young patient going through hospitalization, surgery and recovery; (3) the third group received the puppet presentation plus added coping material teaching children to relax their muscles and to use imagery and self-instruction; and (4) the fourth group saw the puppet presentation, the coping material and the film. As expected, the use of these procedures was found to be effective, but, unexpectedly, children exposed to the film plus puppet show were more anxious and less cooperative than children who saw only the puppet show. Since comparisons between the film and the other procedures would be invalidated if the film was ineffective, a similar study, including a control group, was conducted. The film was transferred to videotape and a few alterations were made in the sequence of scenes. Experimental group children were given the chance to view a puppet show, a videotape produced locally, or the videotaped film. All three procedures were equally effective. Pragmatic implications are discussed. (Author/RH)