Child Life Internships

Child Life internships are offered in the spring, summer and the fall. Internships are organized to meet student needs, address specific interests of individuals and comply with your academic institution's requirements. The internship is a 15-week, full-time unpaid position. The internship curriculum incorporates child life programming challenges and strategies to address current health care issues. Students are given opportunities to:

• Build independent professional skills

• Strengthen therapeutic group play supervision skills

• Develop assessment and intervention skills with individual patients

The student's clinical supervisor, along with other staff members in the department, provides instruction and guidance.

The 600-hour child life internship at Children's Medical Center Dallas provides the learner with a supervised, guided experience with children and learning toward acquisition of professional child life skills. The basic components of the internship are organized around the child life competencies and include:

• Becoming more familiar with hospital policies and procedures by observing child life staff in various settings

• Learning about diverse areas in child life by participating in daily student groups

• Working in two different clinical areas of the child life department, each for six weeks. In these assignments, the student will work under the supervision of a CCLS in implementation of child life services to the patient population served

• Participating in multidisciplinary meetings such as patient care conferences, clinical rounds, etc.

• Completing the following assignments: case presentations, pediatric diagnosis presentation, an intern project, weekly journals, and required readings

• Attending additional learning experiences to meet specific areas of interest or to address the academic institution’s requirements

Interns typically work the same hours as their clinical supervisor. Additional evening, weekend, and holiday experiences may be required.

Student evaluation is conducted using: 

• Written mid-term and final evaluations using a tool based on the Child Life Council’s competencies

• Objectives determined by student

• Objectives established by the student's academic department

• Completion of all required assignments

Requirements

• Must be affiliated with a university during the internship

• Must have an overall 3.0 GPA

• Must have completed a child life practicum

• Must have completed a child life course taught by a certified child life specialist

• Must have some experience with hospitalized children at the time of the application

Process

Email below items to internshipapplications@childrens.com (please include your first and last name in the subject line):

• Completed internship application

• Current resume

• Documentation of Child Life Council Coursework Review   

Submit in one envelope via US mail:

• Documentation of completed 100 hour child life practicum done under the supervision of a child life specialist

• Child Life Council verification form of complete child life course taught by a certified child life specialist

• Transcripts from all universities attended

• Two letters of reference

  • One from an academic professor

  • One from your practicum supervisor or someone who has observed your work with hospitalized children

Please mail to:

Krista Stringer, MS, CCLS
Child Life Department
1935 Medical District Drive
Dallas, TX 75235

Deadlines

All applications must be postmarked by the application deadline as specified by the Child Life Council. 

Due to the large number of applicants, we are unable to individually respond to confirm receipt of documents. If you require verification of receipt, please arrange for this with the post office or delivery service you choose.