Fabulous Find Friday: Child’s Play

We all know how popular video games are and many of us have probably also read the research that too much video games can have negative affects on a child’s development. But for hospitalized children, video games can also provide many benefits. Besides the entertainment aspect for those children who can’t leave the hospital, these interactive games can also help patients cope with stressful situations and invasive procedures.

Child’s Play is an organization that provides video games and toys for hospitalized children and also domestic violence shelters. Through working with the hospital to create Amazon wishlists and also utilizing cash donations, Child’s Play creates play opportunities for hospitalized children throughout the world.

Visit http://childsplaycharity.org/ to learn more about this wonderful organization.

Also check out Child’s Play Therapeutic Video Game guide which offers video games suggestions based on related therapeutic goals.

 

 

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.

Click here to send me a message

Fabulous Find Friday: Hope for Henry

Hope for Henry is an organization that is creating innovative programs for seriously ill children and their families. This variety of programs works to reduce stress and empower children to be active participants in their medical care. Check out their website to learn more about their programs that include supporting Child Life Specialists in the hospital and motivating children in their healing journeys.

Visit https://hopeforhenry.org/what-we-do/ to learn more.

VCUG Prep

A VCUG (Voiding Cystourethorgram) is done to see what happens in a child’s body when they go pee. Below are the steps of a VCUG;

1. First the X-Ray tech will take pictures of their belly. These are called scouting pictures and they are done to that the doctor can make sure there’s nothing in their belly.
2. Next the child will lay on the bed and girls will put their legs in frog position while boys can leave their legs straight.
3. Once they are in position, the tech will clean their private parts with a special soap that sometimes looks like chocolate.
4. After cleaning the area, the tech will insert a small straw (catheter) into where they go pee. This is done so that the tech can will up the bladder with sparkly highlighter water. This highlighter water is used to help the child’s bladder show up on the pictures.
5. Once the straw is in, the staff will use a piece of tape to hold it into place and then fill up the bladder. Your child might feel as though they have to go pee but they need to hold it until the tech says it’s okay to go pee.
6. The next step is the hardest, the child needs to pee on the table. The reason for this is that the goal of the VCUG is to get pictures of what happens when they go pee so they need to take x-ray pictures while the child is peeing.
7. Once they have peed on the table and staff has taken the pictures then need, your child will be able to go the bathroom and then put their own clothes back on.

Children’s Mercy has YouTube videos going through the steps of the VCUG, check them out below.

Slow to Warm

Some patients are harder to connect with. Often they have the slow to warm temperament. During my time volunteering at a children’s hospital, one of the patients on my list was like this. The patient was a 12 y.o female and she was alone in the hospital so staff asked if I could bring some activities to her room. I grabbed connect four and a sand art project. We had sand art kits that were a mandala where you could remove the paper covering each section and add the sand. Below is a picture of these sand art kits, available from Oriental Trading.

When I went into this patient’s room and introduced myself, she responded very quietly. I could tell that she was shy. I showed her the sand art, but she didn’t make any motion to take it. I was always taught to let the kids do the project instead of doing it for them, but this particular patient didn’t seem to want to do the project. So I showed her how we remove the smaller piece of paper and then asked what color sand she would like to use. After she chose the sand, I demonstrated how we pour it on the project and it will stick to the part where we removed the paper. I then asked her to choose which section we should remove paper from next and she selected a small area. I removed that paper and encouraged her to pour the sand of choice on the section. We continued in these baby steps until eventually the patient was doing the project herself.

As I was guiding the patient, my goal was for her to do the project alone. When I left, I wanted her to continue to work on it so she wouldn’t be bored. I knew that I couldn’t do the whole project with her, she needed to take control. But because she was slow to warm, I had to be patient while she grew comfortable with me and comfortable doing the project herself. By the time I left, we had also played connect four and she had even smiled. This experience reminded me the importance of patience. As Child Life Specialists, and as student volunteers, our role is to provide a safe place for patients to grow and explore. Because this patient knew I would encourage and support her, not criticize if she didn’t do the craft right, she became comfortable enough to chat with me and enjoyed our time together.

Fabulous Find Friday: Comfort Kits

Guidepost Comfort Kits are created to brighten the lives of children who are hospitalized or undergoing medical treatments. The comfort kits include items that will help make the child’s stay a little easier. They have a stuffed toy, stress ball, stickers and a journal to remember each child’s unique situation. To learn more, check out this child life specialist’s post about the impact these kits can have for a hospitalized family: Bringing Comfort to Sick Kids

 

Fabulous Find Friday: “How to Help Children with a Parent’s Serious Illness.”

Today’s Fabulous Find Friday is a book recommendation, How to Help Children with a Parent’s Serious Illness by Kathleen McCue.

This is a great guide for parents who want to talk to their children, but it can also educate other professionals in the field who might encounter parents that are dying or their children. McCue offers practical advice for talking to children about a diagnosis and also how to support them through a loss. The book is divided into specific sections that are geared toward answering a particular question or focusing on a specific population. This allows the parent to go straight to the part of the book that might be most applicable to their situation. McCue not only draws on her years of experience from working with families that are undergoing loss, but she also includes real examples of families who have had similar experiences.

How to Help Children Through a Parent’s Serious Illness is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It is also available as an Ebook through Google Books.

“The aim is for your children to build a whole new repertoire of responses – safe, healthy ways of coping with the wrenching, abnormal situation of a parent’s grave illness. Whatever transpires now for you, the parents, you want your children to emerge whole, fulfilled, and ready for the rest of their lives.”

– Kathleen McCue

 

Don’t Give Up!

This week I accepted a Fall Child Life Internship! I’m so excited for what this next chapter of my Child Life journey is going to bring.

I could use this blog post to tell you all about how excited I am, how relieved that the internship application process is over or about my plans for next semester. All of this is happening, but instead I want to speak to those who did not get an internship offer.

If you don’t get an internship, don’t give up! If you truly are passionate about Child Life and want to become a Certified Child Life Specialist, then you will. It might just take a little longer than you expected. Child Life is very competitive. Some hospitals will receive over 75 applicants for their one internship position. So if you did not get an internship this semester, it means that you have time to expand your horizons and build your resume to make yourself more competitive next time.

If you looking for something to add to your experience, think about populations that you haven’t worked with yet. Maybe you have a lot of time spent with oncology patients, but you haven’t worked very many other diagnoses. Or you’ve worked with healthy kids, but don’t have much experience with children with special needs. A wide variety of experiences will give you many skills that can be used when working with kids as a Child Life Specialist. If you’re looking for something new, check out my list for getting volunteer experience. Let me know if you have other ideas that I can add to the list!

“No one has the power to shatter your dreams unless you give it to them.” – Maeve Greyson

Fabulous Find Friday: Sara’s Smiles Foundation

Today’s spotlight is on the Sara’s Smiles Foundation. They are an organization that put together kits for children who are fighting cancer. Their inspiration kit includes the following:

• A file for important papers
• A form letter to notify and reach out to friends, family and community
• A tote bag to carry items throughout the hospital
• Reusable Sticker Corners to display photos, artwork, etc. on walls
• A door hanger and washable markers to personalize one’s room
• A squeeze toy for stress release
• An art pad for self-expression
• A “Picture Me Proud” Card to share milestones and/or special accomplishments
• Small Toys for amusement and distraction
• A “Follow Us” Card to share pictures and stories with Sara’s Smiles

Visit their site to learn more about resources for kids with Cancer and to order kits: http://www.saras-smiles.org/links.htm

 

Fabulous Find Friday: Marshmallow Launchers

This Friday’s Fabulous Find is Marshmallow Launchers. I learned about these at the National Child Life Conference this summer and they are easy to use and super helpful. It is basically a recorder like tool, without the holes, that can be filled with small marshmallows. Through deep breathes, these marshmallows can be shot out to targets. Visit Kelsey Kids to learn more about it!

Their site also includes a section with “Helpful Advice from a Child Life Specialist.” Check out what they have to say:

Benefits of Marshmallow Launcher play:

• It increases ambulation (as a child moves about the room to pick up marshmallows and gets in and out of bed).
• It improves respiratory status from pleasurable activity, additional benefit from sucking marshmallow back into tube before exhaling to launch marshmallow.
• Provides normalization of environment through play.
• Shows decreased flat effect when pelting a nurse with a marshmallow.
• Provides aggression release.

Patients that would benefit from Marshmallow Launcher play include:

• Any patient able to exhale forced air, usually over 5 years old.
• Any patient spending excessive time in bed due to surgery, chest tubes, pneumonia, or treatment, burns, etc.
• Any patient who needs an outlet during or after a painful procedure- for example, Marshmallow Launcher play can be used during dressing changes.
• Any patient needing to release aggression or feelings. (You can encourage patients to create targets that display the objects of their fear, anger, or frustration.)