Getting your Masters

I passed the Child Life certification exam in March 2018 and began grad school in August 2018. One question that I often get is why get my masters when I’m already certified and working as a Child Life Specialist?

The main reason I went back to school is that I’m a strong supporter of continuing education. So although I’ve reached the goal of working as a Certified Child Life Specialist, I don’t think that I’m done learning. In fact, I’m nowhere near done learning! A masters program seemed like the natural step, especially considering that my undergrad was in Psychology versus Child Life. I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on and learning more about the field of Child Life, such as completing the University of California Santa Barbara’s Child Life Certificate and attending many regional and national conferences. But getting my Masters in Child Development with a concentration in Child Life offers me a stronger foundation in a blend of child development and pediatric support in the healthcare setting.

I also was excited to start my program while I am working in the field because I think that it gives me a unique perspective. When I was a student and learned about child development or child life theory and practice, it was theoretical. I could imagine how it would be used or read research about how preparation and medical play supports a patient’s coping. Now that I am working in the field, I see these thing every day. When I learn something new about child development, I can recognize that in my patients at work the following day. When we discuss medical play or developmentally appropriate preparation, I have a variety of examples to call upon where a patient coped well or didn’t cope at all with the stressful situation. I have seen times when distraction works perfectly and supports a patient’s coping, and I have also seen times when the patient refused to cope and no amount of distraction was successful.

If you are debating whether to return to school or not, I highly recommend it! Learning more about the child development and the field can only help you grow as an individual and as a professional.

The Association of Child Life Processionals offers a listing of Child Life Academic Programs to help you get started.

Certification Steps and Tips

I’ve seen a lot of Facebook posts and emails on the Child Life forum about the steps to becoming certified as a Child Life Specialist. Everything is explained in detail on the Association of Child Life Professional’s website but here’s a brief overview of the steps to becoming a Certified Child Life Specialist.

Volunteer! If you think you might be interested in this career, start by volunteering in the field. The key to building your resume is having a wide variety of experiences. Check out my page about “Getting Volunteer Experience” if you are looking for new ways to strengthen your resume. But probably the most important volunteer experience to get is  the 100 volunteer hours under the supervision of a child life specialist. While the ACLP doesn’t require these 100 hours for certification, most practicum and internship sites require this experience. So without the 100 hours in a child life department, you can’t complete the steps required by the ACLP.

Class Requirements. Once you decide that this is something you are interested in, you will need to think about your major and the college classes that you’ve taken/are taking. Currently the education requirements are a bachelor’s degree in a related field and 10 courses in specific areas. Visit the Association of Child Life Professional’s Course Requirements to learn more about these classes. If you need somewhere to take these classes, the University of California Santa Barbara offers a Child Life Certificate. This certificate does not substitute a bachelor’s degree but can be a great supplement if you are looking for more Child Life specific classes. I completed UCSB’s certificate program after graduating with my BA in Psychology and loved it. The program is a great addition to your undergrad education if you aren’t majoring in Child Life as they provide Child Life Specific classes that are very relevant to the career.

Practicum. The practicum is another step that is not required by the ACLP, but most internship sites require/highly encourage that applicants first complete a practicum. A practicum is a great introduction to the field of child life. It gives students an opportunity to observe and learn from child life specialists through hands on learning. A child life practicum is usually just 100 – 150 hours and focuses on teaching the student about child life whereas an internship’s goal is to make the student independent. If you’re still on the fence, check out my 3 Reasons to do a Child Life Practicum!

Eligibility Assessment. The eligibility assessment is used by the ACLP to identify which students have finished the required steps before they can sit for the exam. The eligibility assessment is $75 but that’s a one time fee. So you can start it even if you don’t think you have all the required classes because you can just update it with more classes as you continue in your child life journey.  Most internship sites ask that you send along a copy of your eligibility assessment with your application, so make sure you start it before internship applications. It can take a couple weeks for the ACLP to receive your transcripts and then approve your classes.

Internship. The Association of Child Life Professionals requires that students complete a 600 hour internship before they are eligible to sit for the exam. As I’m sure most of you know, these internships are very competitive. When preparing to apply, think about the experiences that make you unique from other candidates. Most of the people who are applying for internships have all done their hospital volunteer hours, practicum and required courses. So try to make your application stand out! When internship sites look at applications, they are not only looking for a qualified candidate but for someone who would be a good fit with their team. So applying to more hospitals just increases your chances of an offer. The recommended number I’ve heard mentioned is that students should apply to 20-30 hospitals. I applied to 15 hospitals, interviewed with 4 and received 2 offers. There were also two hospitals that I applied to and never heard back from. So the more open you are to relocating and moving from home for a semester, the better your chances are of an offer.  And remember that it often takes people more that one round of applications before they receive and internship offer, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get an offer the first time.

Certification Exam. The last step is the certification exam. After this exam, you can put the letters CCLS after your name and you will be certified! The exam can only be taken in March, August and November. It’s 150 multiple choice questions that covers the domains of professional responsibility, assessment and intervention. Read the ACLP’s exam content outline to see what’s all on the test. Check out these blog posts to prepare for the exam; Fabulous Find Friday: Child Life Secrets Exam Study Guide and 3 things to know before the Exam.

Any other questions, feel free to send me a message. I was an independent students and created many opportunities for myself, so I’d love to help you out! I know how confusing the process can be when you’re going at it alone.

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Fabulous Find Friday: Child Life Secrets Exam Study Guide

Earlier this week I took the Certification Exam and this book was by far the most helpful resource that I used to study. What’s great about this study guide is that it covers a wide variety of material ranging from ethics and professional practice to play and child development. The other thing that’s nice about this book is that not only is there a practice test with answers, but there are paragraph length explanations for why each answer is right/wrong. After reading the books on the Association’s assigned list, this is a great study guide to use in the month before you take the exam. I highly recommend it!

3 things to know before the Exam

Yesterday I took the certification exam and thankfully, I passed! There are a couple things that I wish someone had told me while I was stressing right before I started the exam, so here is some advice for you;

1. Take a Deep Breath! By the time you get to the exam, you have already completed classes and an internship. You have probably also done hundreds of volunteer hours, practicums, conferences and read many books on working with children. So while you may think have been studying the last couple months since you finished your internship, you actually have been studying for this test since you started your Child Life journey three or more years ago.
2. It might not take the whole 4 hours. When I learned that it was a 4 hour exam, I started to freak out. Even the SAT and ACT are less than four hours! But the exam is actually 150 multiple choice questions. Everyone is different and luckily the 4 hours gives you plenty of time to answer all the questions and go back and check them. But as a fast test taker, it only took me an hour to complete.
3. The practice tests really do help! Besides the suggested readings, I did many practice tests. These were the most helpful. They help you understand how the test questions are designed and what kinds of answers are your options.  If you study nothing else, do the practice tests!

Check out the Association of Child Life Professionals Candidate Manual to learn more about the exam and find the list of suggested reading.

 

Fabulous Find Friday: Playmakers

For those of you in the New England area, I’m sure you know of the Life is Good clothing company. For those of you that have not heard of Life is Good, they are a clothing company that is focused on sharing optimism and giving back to the community. One of the ways that they give back is through their Playmaker Initiative.

Child Life Specialists are Playmakers! Life is Good defines a playmaker as “someone who provides the power of optimism to children who desperately need it.” Check out their site to learn more about becoming a playmaker; http://content.lifeisgood.com/kidsfoundation/what-we-do/become-a-playmaker/

 

 

Fabulous Find Friday: CPS Certification

I want to start by saying that while I have not completed this training yet, I have heard good things and it is on my list of future certifications that I would like to get. Today’s Fabulous Find Friday is National Child Passenger Safety Certification.

CPS certification is a training focused on teaching parents and professionals how to safely install and use a child’s car seat. With the CPS training, you will learn how to install seats, provide community presentations and safety check already installed car seats.

As Child Life Specialists, this is a helpful training to attend. We often are in a position where we work with parents and children who are driving in car. And many times, parents have gotten new car seats for their child to use on the way home from the hospital, so what better support to offer than to help the parent install the child’s car seat?

PSIA Certification: Level One Instructor

Over Christmas Break this winter, I finally got my level one certification as a ski instructor. I’ve been teaching 3-6 year olds how to ski for the past 6 years, but never wanted to take the test. Well at the beginning of this year, I traveled to New Hampshire to take the test and I am so glad that I did.

Let me backtrack for a moment and explain what PSIA means and what the exam looks like. PSIA stands for Professional Ski Instructors of America. They are a nationwide organization that certifies snow-sports instructors. The exam consists of one day of training, an on hill skiing skill test, a teaching demonstration and then a paper exam that covers basic knowledge of ski instructing and an understanding of the mountain. The whole process takes two days and in the end you receive a certificate and your PSIA pin. If you work at a ski resort, you know exactly how cool it is to have a PSIA pin!

So why did I wait so long to take the test? I had a couple reasons for not taking the test. I have been teaching skiing since I was 16. As a high school student, teaching skiing was a job that combined my two loves (working with children and skiing). I wasn’t consumed with planning out my future and I was only in high school, it didn’t even cross my mind to take a national certification exam. Once I got into college, I was only home for a couple weeks over Christmas time so teaching at the mountain was a temporary job. My mountain offers PSIA exams, but not during Christmas time. So there also was a lack of convenience that stood in my way.

Why now? Why did I decide to finally take the test? The easy answer is that my supervisor encouraged me to. If I want to move up as an instructor at my mountain, I need my level one certification. There is also a pay increase, so that was obviously a motivating factor. But the real reason is that I am older. I know what I want to do and I want to take advantage of every opportunity to improve myself and be better prepared for the career ahead of me.

The level one training was idea sharing (meeting the other instructors and hearing how they teach the same skill to their student in different ways gave me new ideas to try when I returned to my home mountain), it was educational (the trainers had all taught skiing for a long time, so they were an abundance of knowledge about teaching different kinds of students and different ways to teach the same thing based on the student) and it was self-affirming. I like to teach skiing and I think that I’m not too bad at working with the 3-6 year olds. I was really encouraging to share my ideas with others and hear that they loved how I taught that skill or the way I phrased that direction for my students.

How does this relate to Child Life? Teaching skiing has given me a lot of experience working with children. Our lesson program is set up so we have the children for the whole day. Not only do I teach skiing, I also feed the kids, calm their fears and gradually accustom them to the discomfort of ski boots and the new sport of sliding down the hill on two sticks. With each lesson, I start by talking to the kids about the ski boots. We play games that they know (duck duck goose, red light green light, etc) in unfamiliar boots and unfamiliar terrain (the snow). Then we learn about the ski and start with just one ski. Once they are comfortable with that, we add the second ski and start going down the bunny slope. In the hospital, child life prep is that gradual familiarization between the patient and the medical equipment they will encounter. Instead of the nurse entering the room and suddenly jabbing an IV into the child’s arm, the Child Life Specialist explains to the child that an IV is a little straw that gives medicine to your body and the child plays with the IV before one is inserted into their arm. Sometimes they even place an IV on a doll before the nurse comes in to place one on the child. The IV is now something that they are familiar with and hopefully more comfortable around. That’s the goal of starting the kids with boot games and one ski, so they will be familiar with skiing before they have two skis strapped to their feet.

Child Life is all about meeting the child where they are at and guiding them through something unfamiliar. Teaching skiing requires the instructor to assess the child and develop a lesson plan based on their experience with the goal of teaching them something new, something unfamiliar.