Introduction to Child Life: Working with Children and Families in Healthcare Settings

Catalog description

The course provides the student with an introduction to the practice of Child Life in healthcare settings, serving as an educational foundation for those interested in pursuing a Child Life internship or other career working with children and families in a healthcare setting. Child Life programs seek to promote optimum development of children, adolescents, and families within a healthcare setting by helping to maintain normal living patterns and minimizing psychological trauma. Various theoretical positions related to the field (including but not limited to child development, play, stress, illness, trauma, and bereavement) will be described and their implications discussed. Classroom activities and assignments will help to develop relevant clinical skills including therapeutic play techniques, procedural preparation and support, coping strategies, child assessment, promoting advocacy/family-centered care, and health education. Official documents created by the Child Life Council, the certifying body for the field, will be reviewed, in addition to other seminal Child Life publications. The necessity for evidence-based practice will be discussed and relevant empirical studies will be presented (including those conducted in analogous academic fields such as developmental pediatrics and behavioral medicine).