Child Life specialists help children and families cope with stress in the hospital. Child life specialists use medical explanations, play, and teaching materials to help ease anxiety and prepare children and families for hospital stays, surgery, and other procedures.
Child Life specialists understand the emotional and developmental needs of sick children. They hold bachelor's or master's degrees in child life, child development, or related fields, and have completed a minimum of a 480-hour internship and a written exam for certification. Their experience and education help them answer questions about child growth and development, ways children cope, and reactions to being in a medical setting.
The profession's tools of the trade include everything from lip balm-scented face masks and bubbles to explanations about an upcoming procedure that a child can understand. During “medical play,” a Child Life specialist might help a child give an IV to a puppet in order to show how the straw-like tube delivers medicine to the body. In an operating room, they might show a patient how changing his breathing can make the numbers and lines on the monitor beside him fluctuate.
"Child Life and Family Studies" is its own college discipline, and all specialists have either a bachelor's or a master's degree in the subject or related subject such as psychology, sociology or therapeutic recreation. Specialists must also take additional classes including medical terminology and anatomy and physiology, as well as complete a practicum and a clinical internship. They must also pass the certification exam, given by the Child Life Council, as well as be recertified every five years.
To learn more about the Child Life Program, please call (864) 455-7846 or email childlifeprogram@ghs.org.