{Child Life}

Child Life Specialists help to make the hospital experience less stressful on children and their families

&
 

  • Cool sites

  • About

    I love the field of Child Life and enjoy having this blog to network, learn, and share information with other people who are already in the field, or interested in pursuing a career in it. I post anything and everything from internships, to tips for parents, and Child Life in the news. I graduated from the University of Utah last year with my BS in Human Development and Family Studies with a Child Life Emphasis. I am currently planning on applying for the Child Life Internship at Primary Children's Medical Center in the fall. For readers who are new to the field, Child Life Specialists help to make the hospital experience a less scary one for children and the entire family. They aim to do this by providing step by step procedural preparations including informing the child (in an age appropriate detail) about what they will hear, smell, touch, taste, and see during a test or surgery. Child Life Specialists also provide developmentally appropriate play, distraction during tests, emotional support to the patient as well as the entire family, sibling education and support, and bereavement support if necessary. If you have any questions, comments, or information you would like to see here, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to contact me at sweetblueair[at]gmail.com

Archive for September 17th, 2008

Sep 17 2008

Excuses, excuses and…books

Published by wordsforeverything under Uncategorized Edit This

I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last update. I really miss updating this, however things have been incredibly crazy busy with me lately. I started a new job, that’s my biggest excuse. I applied to a few internships as well. I’ve also been spending time entertaining out of town guests and just hanging with family. I started another blog, this time just a place for me to babble about music, movies and books. http://equeen.today.com

It’s been a weird adjustment for me that it is fall and I am not in school. I have been a “student” for so long. To distract myself from the no homework blues (haha) I have been reading quite a bit. I’ve heard many great things about a book called “Trauma Through A Child’s Eyes” and a few weeks ago I saw it at a Border’s and decided to buy it and see what it has to offer. I’m not very far into it yet, but so far it is much more helpful than I realized it was going to be. I particularly enjoy how the authors stress that a child can be traumatized by little, everyday things that not many people (adults) would think twice about. Putting this into the Child Life field perspective and it’s easy to see why some medical staff may view a simple blood draw or xray as routine and non-threatening when in reality, the child has the potential to be incredibly stressed out by such procedures. I recommend this book to anyone in the Child Life field, no matter what stage you are at in your journey.

No responses yet

Some Today.com contributors may have received a fee or a promotional product or service from a manufacturer for promotional consideration, while others receive no consideration at all. Each contributor is responsible for disclosing any such promotional consideration.