Child Life Clinical Internship Curriculum - Child Life Council

Internship Curriculum Modules Introduction
A comprehensive package for foundational learning experiences
Internships across organizations and institutions offer a wide range of experiences
that contribute to the training of new child life specialists. Many of these experiences cannot
be replicated in all settings, due to demographic differences, size of populations served,
experience and roles of supervisors, acuity, and in general, differences in patient access. For
example, a small pediatric unit or dental practice will not have patients in an intensive care
unit. A freestanding children’s hospital will not provide services to children of adult patients.
Though specific populations may not be present in every internship situation, similar learning
experiences can be created and facilitated.
Recognizing that interns have varied learning styles and needs, and that supervisors
have different approaches and expectations, we hope that by providing a flexible experiential
framework for all, interns will benefit from any type of placement, while supervisors will be
supported in their roles. An evaluation tool has been developed for use with the modules,
specifically aligned with all of the Child Life Council’s Professional Competencies, (CLC Official
Documents, 2002) and addressing all of the skills defined within the Related Domains and
Tasks from the Professional Certification Examination Classification System (CLC, 2008). It is
hoped that this tool, with specific behavioral measures, will help to level evaluation across
sites.
This package was developed to assist clinical supervisors in use of the modules. The
modules have been developed in order for an intern to meet the requirements for clinical
verification. Successful completion of each module means that the intern demonstrates
competency in all the modules as outlined in the evaluation.
The Internship Task Force recommends that prospective interns have completed their
core coursework prior to embarking on an internship. In anticipation of new certification
exam eligibility requirements set to go into effect beginning in 2013, core coursework is
considered to include successful completion of a child life course taught by a certified child
life specialist. Please note that completion of internship training, even when taken for
university credit, will not substitute for the child life course requirement for exam eligibility.
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