This Child Life Month, we collected stories by child life professionals to build community in the profession and showcase the impact of the profession on its members, children and families, and workplaces. We received so many wonderful stories about your child life journeys, reasons for choosing child life, supporting patients, novel ideas, and meaningful experiences. We look forward to sharing them on our #ChildLIfe blog in a new series "Your Child Life Stories."

Laura Mitchell, BS, CCLS: The Power of Encouragement 

Encouragement is the loving and supportive nudge which pushes us out of our comfort zone and allows us to embrace the opportunities we find there. In 2024, encouragement from my multidisciplinary colleagues lead me to teaching and/or simulation facilitation opportunities with three different professional societies— the Society for Pediatric Sedation, Pediatric Procedural,  Sedation and Analgesia (PROSA) as well as our very own ACLP.  It’s a very special thing to be entrusted with educating others, and I am incredibly proud to have a platform to share my expertise amongst pediatric sedation healthcare professionals. Where I have found encouragement, I am also encouraging other child life specialists to find their voice and become presenters themselves. In sedation procedural support interventions, we encourage ONE VOICE, but in the Sedation community, there are many voices to listen to.

Kylie Sprague, MS, CCLS: Child Life & Pediatric Rehabilitation

Being a Certified Child Life Specialist in a Pediatric Rehabilitation Hospital is the most rewarding and inspirational job in the world. I love being able to be a part of helping children recover from injuries, manage chronic conditions and witness their profound improvements in their recovery and quality of life. Every day is different, and I get to use creative approaches to facilitate achieving their rehab goals fun and engaging for them. Seeing my patients regain their independence and knowing that I was a part of making a tangible difference in their lives is why I truly feel that I have the best job in the world.


Alyssa Sachs, MS, CCLS: Child Life & Behavioral Health

When I imagined my career as a child life specialist, I pictured myself working with patients in the playroom, IV poles in tow, guiding them through their diagnoses and upcoming procedures. I never anticipated working so closely with mental and behavioral health patients, but I can confidently say that this experience will become one of the most impactful chapters of my career. Child life practice is the same practice no matter the population. However, the way you approach it may change. This was a concept that I learned from peers but also deeply adapted into my day-to-day life. I felt tremendous growth in myself as a professional in the moment's post-self-harm attempts when I would listen to patients explain to me why they felt the need to take those actions. I also felt growth when preparing patients for what to expect as they transition out of long-term confinement in their rooms or thinking creatively and creating interventions with minimal to no materials due to safety concerns. Over time working with this population, I felt my confidence and skill set grow and started to identify gaps of support that we were missing as an institution. With the support of physicians, hospitalists, nursing leadership, social work, and psychologists, I proposed and implemented behavioral health patient groups. With the help of security and the Behavioral Response Team, we welcomed approved patients each week to join us in the playroom for a weekly hour of therapeutic group programming. My child life colleagues helped support these sessions tremendously by helping me organize and staff these groups. We would often leave each group inspired by the impact normalization and socialization had on the patients. 

Do you have a child life story to share? Submissions are rolling and can be sent via jotform here.