{Child Life}

I have received emails lately asking about university affiliation and internships. So, I thought I would address that here in addition to the emails I have responded to. Some hospitals require a university affiliation to apply for the internships, but some do not. You just need to read over the application and make sure it is very clear who they accept. If it isn’t, you can call or email the internship supervisor, just to be sure before you put all that work into the application. If you are accepted as an independent student (meaning no university affiliation) you will need to find your own liability insurance and set that up. https://www.proliability.com/ and Marsh Insurance are a few I have seen mentioned and suggested before. It is up to you whether or not to do your internship while you are still in school, or after you have graduated. There are many differing opinions on this subject.

I’m wondering if any of you Child Life Specialists out there have ever written a brochure on how to explain a certain disease or disorder to different developmental levels. I am taking this project on myself and want to do this to help out parents of a small community who may be struggling with how to talk to their children about their disease. It is an incredibly rare disorder so there is not a lot of information readily available to parents who may want it. I am confident in my knowledge of the disease, but would like a little feedback and advice/tips nonetheless. Thank you so much in advance!

I recently launched a new part time business with the company Stella & Dot. I love it already! You can join me on my Facebook Group and shop for the jewelry here.

We are a company inspired by and created for strong women. Named after the founder’s beloved grandmothers. Stella & Dot honors that generation of women who crossed oceans, rolled up their sleeves, won the vote, raised kids, went off to work, and still found time to bake. They did it with grace and style. Today, this is how they’d do it.

Stella & Dot is THE modern home-based career that your mother never had. We’ve put the power of e-commerce, social networking, and personal service behind an irresistible product. It’s the next big opportunity for our era. And how.

Think getting together with girlfriends, Lucky Magazine, Facebook, and no glass ceiling in sight. Recognized in the New York Times and The Today Show, it’s not only a big idea, it’s a smart business that actually works. So that what you put into it is what you get out of it. How very Stella & Dot.

Here’s what makes our jewelry so irresistible:

Couture Design. Designed in New York and San Francisco by award-winning trend-setters who also create jewelry sold in Neiman Marcus and Fred Segal.

Affordable Luxury. With plenty of styles under $50.

Style Statement. A Stella & Dot piece turns the modern girl’s uniform of jeans and a simple top into a smashing look.

This is a great new video featuring Child Life at All Children’s Hospital.

I was so happy to learn about this project called Heartfelt Courture. They are changing little lives one at a time by giving kids handmade gowns to help brighten their stay in the hospital. If you are a Child Life Specialist or a parent of a child who has had a medical experience, you know what a huge difference something like a hospital gown can make! They are in need of volunteers to help spread the word about their mission as well as time, fabrics, and talents. Please check them out!

Guided imagery is a good skill to add to your resume and will help you stand out when it comes to those competitive internship interviews and eventually job interviews as well. It benefits adults and children who are going through the challenges of medical illnesses. You can tailor your guided imagery interventions to fit to a child’s diagnosis and specific obstacles they may be facing in their treatment. This is a great source for searching to find a guided imagery school in your area. When I was still taking classes at the University of Utah, I took a class from the person who was then the Director of Child Life at Primary Children’s Medical Center and he strongly recommended the book Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children for Learning, Creativity & Relaxation

You can even take online classes and become certified in guided imagery at the Academy For Guided Imagery

Congrats to those of you interns out there who have finished up your internship in the past few weeks. My friend MaryAnn posted a list on her blog (which is private) about the important things she learned during her internship. I loved them and wanted to share. With her permission of course! I did some slight editing to protect patient’s names, just to be safe. Here it is!

Important things I learned from my internship:

5. Being a Child Life Specialist is completely rewarding and something I really want to do for my career!

If you’ve recently finished your internship, what are 5 things you learned? I would love to post a few.

Also, just a reminder, the Child Life Council’s Annual Conference on Professional Issues will be held May 21-24 at the Westin Boston Waterfront. If you would like more information you can go to the event group on facebook which is located here. I will not be attending this year but if you are attending it would be great to hear updates while the conference is going on. My contact information can be found to the left, in the About section. Thanks in advance!

You can now pre-order The Handbook of Child Life: A Guide for Pediatric Psychosocial Care at Amazon!

The Handbook of Child Life: A Guide for Pediatric Psychosocial Care

Children’s Hospital Omaha offers a Child Life Internship in the Spring and Fall. The upcoming deadline for the Fall session is May 5th. Their critera to even apply is one of the strictest I have seen, the first and foremost is you must have completed a 100 hour Child Life Practicum or have been employed as a Child Life Assistant for 250 hours or 6 months. There is also a $250 fee that covers liability insurance as well as needed textbooks. They accept one intern per semester.

A full information packet can be found here. The application form can be downloaded and filled out here. Good luck!

I’m curious for suggestions out there for solutions to inbetween employment if you are not yet Certified but want to do something that will give you an edge when applying for Child Life Specialist jobs. I realize it’s hard to be picky right now in these times, but I also think it helps tremendously to get all the related experience you can get. I know the popular feedback I have seen before has been nannying or being a preschool teacher, but any other suggestions? I know Child Life Assistant positions are great while you are working on Certification, but there are no hospitals near me who have Child Life Assistants. Thanks in advance for your input!

Also, if you have emailed me with questions and I haven’t answered you yet I promise I am working on catching up on all my email! Thanks!

I’ve been reading ‘The Elephant in the Playroom’ because I feel like a future Child Life Specialist can’t get enough doses of viewpoints from parents raising children with out of the ordinary challenges in daily development. Also because I am understandably intrigued with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. I was able to pick up the book for $2, so that made me even more excited to read it! (I love a good bargain these days!) It seems like my list of books to read that will help me in my career are endless and as I cross more and more off my list it seems like a more possible task to plow through them all.

The book is a collection of essays written by parents (mostly mothers) of children with special needs. They chronicle their battles with schools, doctors, getting a correct diagnosis, well meaning but often hurtful advice from family members and how they learned to take care of themselves as well. It was an intense and emotional read because of the roller coaster it takes you on and how raw the accounts are. There is no sugar coating any of it, but it does balance out the harsh confessions and provides hope.

You can purchase the book here; The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately and Honestly About Raising Kids with Special Needs