{Child Life}

StumbleUpon is a great site for finding more areas of the internet that would interest you. If you love this blog and already have an account, it would be great if you could go here and give it a thumbs up and a positive review. I would really appreciate it. Stumble is great because if you say you like one site, it will show you others that are similar. Be warned though, it is incredibly addicting!

The other day I was looking online for places to buy cloth hospital dolls for a project I am involved in this summer, or to possibly get them donated. I was never successful in my search, so if anyone has ideas, please let me know! I think that a little medical play with some cloth hospital dolls could make a world of difference with some children I will be working with. My membership to the Child Life Council expired so I no longer have access to the wonderful forums. I can’t afford to pay the $100 + membership fees right now or to go to the Conference in Boston in May. I’m frustrated by both of those facts, but oh well. I have a roof over my head and food in my stomach. I shouldn’t complain. Anyway, the point of this post is that in my search I came across a great article! The funny thing is, it is over 20 years old! I have never read it before in any of my Child Life classes but I found it informative and still relevant despite the time that has gone by since it was originally published.

{If a Doll Wears an Eye Patch, I Can Too}

The Handbook of Child Life

While exploring amazon.com the other night I came across a new and not yet released book titled ‘The Handbook of Child Life: A Guide for Pediatric Psychosocial Care’ edited by Richard H. Thompson, Ph.D. While the book isn’t out yet, there is the available option on amazon to explore a little bit of the book. There is no publish date yet, but hopefully it will be soon. Chapters include, The Story of Child Life, Theoretical Foundations of Child Life Practice, Research in Child Life, Therapeutic Relationships in Child Life, Communication and Child Life, Family-Centered Care and the Implications for Child Life Practice, Assessment and Documentation in Child Life, Paradigms of Play, Psychological Preparation and Coping, Program Administration and Supervision, Child Life Interventions in Critical Care and At the End of Life, Working with Grieving Children and Families, Chronic Illness and Rehabilitation, The Emergency Department and Ambulatory Care, Child Life and Education Issues: The Child with a Chronic Illness or Special Healthcare Needs, and Child Life: A Global Perspective.

I had not heard anything about this book until discovering it by accident on amazon. I read the first eight pages that are available to view, but I am looking forward to reading the entire thing! What are your favorite books and resources?

Children’s Hospital of Orange County offers a Child Life Internship in the Fall and Spring. They are not offering a Summer internship for 2009, but the deadline has already passed. Applications can be found here. The internship at CHOC is a 15 week, full time experience. CHOC is located about 5 miles from Disneyland! Your rotations might start as early as 4:30 in the morning and go as late as 12:30 am. Housing is not available. They do accept independent interns. You will have to submit transcripts, resume, letters of recommendation, documentation of 150 hours of volunteer work or 100 hour practicum, and also two essays; one about yourself and one about Child Life. The deadline for applying for the fall session is May 5th. Good luck!

This is just slightly off topic, but has to do with children’s charities and a rare metabolic disease. I am very thrilled for this new project, started by two wonderful and giving ladies! Goods for Goodness Sake made it’s debut a few days ago and are all about shopping and giving back at the same time! They have adorable invitations, note cards, note pads, magnets, recipe cards and much more. 100% of their profits go to charities. No, that is not a typo, one hundred percent. They do not have a staff beyond the two of them and do not pay themselves. The five charities they have now are incredibly small and do not see more than $500k in annual revenue. One of the options for a charity to donate to is Cystinosis Research Network, one that is extremely near and dear to my heart.
Cystinosis is a rare disease that primarily affects children. Without specific treatment, children with Cystinosis develop end stage kidney failure at approximately age 9. It is extremely rare as it is estimated that about 500 individuals in the United States are diagnosed.

You have the option to pick what charity you would like the profits from your order to go to. So if you are in the market for wonderful note cards or any other paper goods, do some shopping and some good at the same time!

Wonders and Worries is an organization in Austin, Texas started by Meredith Cooper, MS, CCLS, LPC and Melissa Hicks, MS, CCLS, LPC, RPT. They help children navigate through the scary world of dealing with a parent who has a chronic or terminal illness. All services are offered free of charge, which is just one of the things that makes Wonders and Worries so amazing! In addition, all therapy is done by a Certified Child Life Specialist. They offer individual sessions, group sessions, child and parent relationship sessions, recreational group activites, and bereavement support sessions. The one on one sessions are for kiddos ages two to eighteen. The group sessions allow children going through comparable journeys to relate to one another. What a fabulous and unique way to use your vast and priceless knowledge that you have gained in your Child Life education!

So, I tend to get tired of layouts very easily and quickly. I’ve been trying to teach myself stuff on photoshop and have been playing around with a bunch of different banners lately. I have to say I kind of like how things are looking here now, so I might keep it for awhile. I like the bike, the wing, the balloon and the puzzle pieces. I think the blue is calming. I updated the About This Blog page and also added an Internship page where I will be categorizing all the internships by state. Having an internship database has always been what I eventually wanted to do with this blog, there are just so many and only one of me! I’m working on it though, slowly but surely. Child Life is SUCH a competitive field and I feel like sometimes that gets the best of me (and everyone else) so I’m glad to help out others in their journey.

Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas offers a Child Life internship that consists of a full time, 15 week 600 hour session. Their deadlines follow the CLC guidelines. For the internship starting in the fall, the deadline is May 5th. They accept last semester seniors as well as graduates and graduate students. Requirements to apply for this internship include, must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and finished your degree in Child Life or a related field, or be in a program working towards that. They also require you to have 150 hours of supervised experience with “healthy” kids and 150 to 200 hours of supervised experience with hospitalized children. Here is a link to download the 7 page application packet you will need in order to apply. Along with the application you will also need to include an essay, a resume, official transcript, course work review done by the Child Life Council, 3 letters of recommendation as well as verification of your hours working with well and hospitalized kids. They want at least 50% of your hours to be completed by the time the application is due. A wonderful thing about Texas Children’s is that their Child Life Program was established in 1975! For more information, call 832-824-1754.

Hope this helps some of you out there. Keep the requests coming!

I’m running a little low on ideas and inspiration for here, so I need your help! What would you most like to see here? What would you like to see more of? Would posting more internship information be helpful? Would you like to know what hospitals offer Practicums as well? If you are an intern, would you like tips and strategies on how to get the most out of your internship? Is anyone interested in learning more about Child Life outside of the hospital? If you are already Certified and working, what would you like to see? Have you already completed an internship but are on the job hunt and need some additional resources? I know the field of Child Life has a variety of situations and stages in the journey of the career, so I just want to have a little bit of everything and be able to assist as much as possible, while still going forward in my own adventure in this field. Let me know! You can either leave a comment here or email me at sweetblueair@gmail.com

Thanks!