What is a Certified Child Life Specialist?
Certified child life specialists are educated and clinically trained in the developmental impact of illness and injury. Infants, children, and youth confront a wide variety of stressful and potentially traumatic events that can impact their ability to cope. These experiences related to health care can lead to feelings of fear, confusion, loss of control, and isolation.
Certified child life specialists help infants, children, youth, and families cope with the stress and uncertainty of acute and chronic illness, injury, trauma, disability, loss, and bereavement. They provide evidence-based, developmentally and psychologically appropriate interventions including therapeutic play, preparation for procedures, procedural support, and education to reduce fear, anxiety, and pain.
How do you become a certified child life specialist?
Eligibility requirements for the certification exam include:
Child life services at Cooper:
The Child Life Program at Cooper is multifaceted and meets a variety of needs throughout the hospital. Our child life specialists provide services for children and families in:
- Inpatient Pediatrics – providing support for needle pokes, preparation for surgery, and coping skills for patients with lengthy or repeat hospitalizations.
- PICU – providing family support for critically ill and injured children.
- Peds Emergency and Trauma – providing emotional support for stitches, fractures, imaging, and hospital admissions.
- Radiology – providing preparation and support for outpatient imaging studies.
- NICU – providing developmentally appropriate stimulation.
- Adult Critical Care – providing bereavement support and resources for children of critically ill or injured adults.
Our child activities assistants make sure pediatric patients have a chance to feel like kids by normalizing the environment with toys, games, movies, arts and crafts, electronics, visits to the playroom or teen lounge, and more!
Our creative arts therapists have degrees in art therapy or music therapy and provide services for inpatients who need additional support for coping with anxiety, pain, trauma, and other emotionally complex issues. Art and music often help children to express themselves in a way they cannot yet describe using their own words or vocabulary.
(Excerpts taken from the Association of Child Life Professionals website, www.childlife.org.)