Becoming a Child Life Specialist
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What Does a Child Life Specialist Do?
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A child life specialist works to help children and their families adapt to and cope with their experience in the health care setting. She does this by evaluating the family's needs and designing appropriate interventions to meet those needs. She also serve as a communication go-between for the health care team and the family.
Personal Characteristics
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Due to the nature of the child life specialist's typical job duties, the successful candidate for this position should have characteristics that align well with the job. Some of these may include but are not limited to a desire to work with children, patience to teach and explain things to children, empathy for families, the ability to cope with the particular stresses of working with the sick and dying. Those that desire to become a director of a child life program should cultivate their problem-solving, people and leadership skills as well.
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Education
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Anyone wishing to become a child life specialist must either complete a bachelor's degree in a child life specialist program or similar major. If the preferred school doesn't have a child life specialist program, some alternate majors include child development, family studies, early childhood education and child psychology. The course of study will prepare students to assess child needs, educate children and their families, communicate with medical staff and intervene with specific activities and tools. Courses also include work in professional ethics and how to maintain standards of care and practice. The Child Life Council recommends choosing an academic program with a core that reflects its standards of professional practice and that offers academic resources specific to the child life services field.
Becoming Certified
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The prerequisite for child life specialist certification includes a bachelor's degree, at least 10 college-level courses related to child life services and at least 480 internship hours. The internship can be in a hospital but can also be in a hospice, clinic or community program. The exam is 150 multiple choice questions for which a maximum of 4 hours is allowed for completion. One-quarter of the exam is about professional responsibility. The rest of the exam is related to assessment of the child (31 percent) and intervention (44 percent). The cost to take the test depends on whether the candidate is a member of the Child Life Council.
Finding a Position
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One option for career placement is at the facility where the internship was completed. If this isn't an option, the Child Life Council maintains a career center with resources for job placement within the field. This job placement center is complete with an interactive tool to help calculate future compensation and is based on recent comprehensive surveys of other child life professionals in Canada and the United States. As of January 2008, the middle 50 percent of child life professionals in these regions earned $60,000. Expected salary will depend on level of education and geography.
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