CDEV 380 - Child LIfe - Theory & Practice

3 hours
This course is designed for students interested in field of Child Life to learn the fundamental skills in supporting children and families to cope with stress and pain experienced through life’s adversities. Child Life programs support the psychosocial, emotional and developmental needs of children, adolescents and families, to maintain normalcy, and to minimize trauma. Child Life specialists, as members of the multi-disciplinary health-care team, maintain, enhance, and maximize normal growth and development through play, education, advocacy, and therapeutic interventions. At the completion of this course, students will be able to promote the essential child life goals outlined by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) of minimizing stress and anxiety, promote coping, and promote normal development. **This course meets all the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) requirements for the Child Life Course. It is taught by a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS). Through completion of the course, students will be able toL Explain the philosophy of the child life professional to patients, families and prospective employers/internships sites ;connect ACLP certification standards and professional expectations to meet effective child life practices; apply theories of child development and family systems to therapeutic practices in the hospital setting;relate knowledge of grief, loss and bereavement, along with stress and coping to meet the developmental needs of children, adolescents families and ;adapt child life interventions to meet the psychosocial, emotional developmental and cultural needs of families. Prerequisite(s): CDEV 211 and CDEV 230. UG