ACLP is proud of individuals aspiring to join the child life profession. Learners deserve respect and support at every stage of their child life journey, and this month, we celebrate the child life student and acknowledge that joining the field can be a rewarding yet challenging process. The following resources can support students and those guiding their journey.

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Child Life Student Giveaway!

ACLP is giving away TWO bundles of school supplies and ACLP merch to child life students who enter on Instagram! A $50 value, these items will set you up for a successful  semester and add some fun to your supply box. Participants must follow our Instagram page (@assocchildlife), like our post, and comment why they want to be a CCLS. An additional entry can be gained by sharing the post to your story and tagging us. Entry open August 21-24 at 11:59 PM EST.

Digital Exclusive from ACLP's upcoming Bulletin Issue

Supporting Autistic Child Life Students: " As a field, we cannot solve our lack of diversity until we improve our support for students from underrepresented groups. In exploring ways to meet the needs of autistic or otherwise neurodivergent child life students, ongoing research will certainly be helpful... However, for student supervisors and educators, the time to act is now." From Mary Ann Gill, ACLP Bulletin Summer 2023

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Free Resources for Students

• Becoming Certified: ACLP's online guide to pursuing child life certification can help you determine next steps in your child life journey and answer common questions about being an aspiring professional.
• Child Life Professional Certification Candidate Manual: Created by the certifying body, this manual has everything you need to know about pursuing certification and includes the necessary documents and tasks all in one place.
• Ask a CCLS: A webinar for students to connect and ask questions: Academic and clinical experts answer pre-identified questions to help prospective child life specialists hear more about the process of becoming a CCLS.
• Diversity Scholarships: Diversity Scholarships support students from diverse backgrounds or low socioeconomic status who may otherwise be challenged in completing an internship.
• ACLP Student Video Library: Take advantage of free learning resources for aspiring child life professionals led by experts in the field. 
• ACLP Pre-Internship Modules: The free Pre-Internship Learning Modules can be used by Pre-Internship learners as well as supervisors in healthcare and alternative settings. These modules support learners who:
  • are interested in child life and must complete a pre-internship experience as part of their academic requirements
  • wish to connect experiential opportunities to ACLP’s pre-internship knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)

Resources for Supporting Learners

Webinars:

• No one had to lose for you to win: Psychological Safety for the Child Life Student: The support that students gain as they enter the field of child life is wide and quite variable. This webinar will explore the topic of how this impacts the scope of psychological safety through the breakdown of the safety core components, survey response and literature support. Live webinar on 10/17/23 at 1 PM EST worth 1 PDU, Ethics
• Do the Right Thing: Teaching Ethics in the Academic and Clinical Setting: In this presentation, an academic instructor and a clinical student coordinator discuss how to implement approaches to cultivating healthcare ethics in students, colleagues, and oneself. Recorded webinar worth 1 PDU, Ethics
• Connecting Clinical and Academic Worlds: Cultivating Future Child Life Specialists: Certified Child Life Specialists are preparing for the certification eligibility transitions that lie ahead. This session is designed to offer knowledge, guidance, and connections to prepare for such transitions. Recorded Conference presentation worth 1 PDU
• Cultivating the Supervisor Identity: Connecting a Developmental Approach with Child Life Students: This presentation explores the use of a developmental theory approach to guide child life specialists in developing their supervisor identity and provide purposeful and productive supervision to child life students. Recorded webinar worth 1.5 PDUs
  
  

Bulletin & Journal Articles

• Kindling the Flame: A Preceptor’s Role in Preventing Student Burnout During Clinical Child Life Experiences: "As educators, preceptors, and role models, we have a duty to the students we encounter to provide a foundational education on the realities of the child life profession. Kindling a student’s flame through educating, implementing, and nurturing self-care and preventative burnout strategies works to offer long-term solutions, beyond the classroom, in realistic clinical environments." From Rebecca Gordon, MA, CCLS, ACLP Bulletin Summer 2022
• Internship Crisis: There’s a Crisis in the Field and We Have to Talk About It: "While we are all feeling the effects of the global healthcare crisis, students are shouldering the burdens in different ways. It is only by bringing all stakeholders to the table that we can move forward with new, improved, and more equitable frameworks for success in both the internship process and certification at large." From Annie Jacobson, ACLP Bulletin Spring 2022
• Diversifying the Field: Supporting the Development of Child Life Academic Programs at Historically Black Colleges & Universities & Hispanic-Serving Institutions: "Racial and ethnic diversity can be impacted by identifying where racially and ethnically diverse students find their academic community. This means finding students where they are studying and collaborating with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) to introduce students to the field of child life." ACLP Bulletin Winter 2023
• Increasing Access for Students with Different Abilities in Entry to the Child Life Profession: "Adapting is what child life specialists do best, remember to stay open to students with a different ability or background than you. While it is not always easy to stay open to promoting and ensuring inclusivity in a program or department, it is worth it." From Rachel Rock, ACLP Bulletin Summer 2022
• Child Life Internship Readiness: Perspectives of Child Life Training Coordinators and Supervisors: This mixed-methods study focuses on internship readiness from the clinical internship coordinators’ and supervisors’ perspectives to understand the child life intern selection process. Results indicate there are criteria that qualify and disqualify child life interns related to the internship candidates’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. The Journal of Child Life, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2023
• “We’re Going Through Tough Times Right Now”: How Students of Color Navigate the Field of Child Life: The purpose of this exploratory study was to analyze the experiences of child life students of color. Twelve child life students of color took part in in-depth interviews with the authors. The Journal of Child Life, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2023