Annotated Bibliography: Child Life Specialist
Alysha Eckert
Keywords in searching:
1. “Child Life Specialist”
2. Therapeutic Play
3. Children with hospitalized stress
4. Coping Families of ill children
5. Children’s Hospital
6. Child life program
7. Emotional effects of hospitalization
8. How to distress children
9. Techniques used to help grieving families
10. Job description of a child life specialist
11. Children’s Pain Management
Source One: Child Life Council Webpage
http://www.childlife.org/

What is a CLS: http://www.childlife.org/The%20Child%20Life%20Profession/
Child life specialists are trained professionals with expertise in helping children and their
families overcome life’s most challenging events.
Armed with a strong background in child development and family systems, child life
specialists promote effective coping through play, preparation, education, and selfexpression activities. They provide emotional support for families, and encourage
optimum development of children facing a broad range of challenging experiences,
particularly those related to healthcare and hospitalization. Because they understand
that a child’s wellbeing depends on the support of the family, child life specialists
provide information, support and guidance to parents, siblings, and other family
members. They also play a vital role in educating caregivers, administrators, and the
general public about the needs of children under stress.

What do they do?
http://www.childlife.org/The%20Child%20Life%20Profession/HowaChildLifeSpecialistCa
nHelpYou.cfm
The American Academy of Pediatrics affirms that child life is “an essential
component of quality pediatric health care,”1 and as such, child life services have
become a standard in most pediatric hospital settings. Child life specialists
typically work as members of an interdisciplinary team, which may include
physicians, nurses, social workers, therapists, counselors, teachers, parents and
others.
Child life specialists focus on the psychosocial needs of children, collaborating
with parents and other members of the team to:
 Ease a child’s fear and anxiety with therapeutic and recreational play activities
 Foster an environment that incorporates emotional support
 Encourage understanding and cooperation by providing non-medical preparation
and support for children undergoing tests, surgeries, and other medical procedures
 Advocate for family-centered care
 Engage and energize children and families by coordinating special events,
entertainment, and activities
 Consider the needs of siblings or other children who may also affected by a child’s
illness or trauma
 Direct pre-admission hospital tours and resources, and consultations with
outpatient families
 Support families confronting grief and bereavement issues
 Provide information and resources for parents and members of the
interdisciplinary team

Needs/Statements/References about CLS:
http://www.childlife.org/The%20Child%20Life%20Profession/CaseforChildLife.cfm
-Views from Academy of pediatrics, Psychosocial and evidence-based practices

Missions, Values, and Vision:
http://www.childlife.org/The%20Child%20Life%20Profession/ProfessionMissionVisionV
aluesPositionStatements.cfm
What they should do and value as CLS. Vision statement and standards of CLS.

History:
http://www.childlife.org/The%20Child%20Life%20Profession/HistoryoftheProfession.cf
m -history of child life program
http://www.childlife.org/The%20Child%20Life%20Profession/Timeline.cfm -timeline of
child life program/specialists
Source Two: Child Life Services (Statistical Data Included).
Source:Pediatrics 106.5 (Nov 2000): p1156. (2632 words)
Document Type:Magazine/Journal
Source Citation:"Child Life Services." Pediatrics 106.5 (Nov 2000): 1156. Expanded Academic
ASAP. Gale. Michigan State University Libraries. 19 Mar. 2009
<http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=EAIM>.
Gale Document Number:A67442729


“Abstract: Child life programs have become the standard in large pediatric settings to
address the psychosocial concerns that accompany hospitalization and other health
care experiences. Child life programs facilitate coping and the adjustment of children
and families in 3 primary service areas: 1) providing play experiences; 2) presenting
developmentally appropriate information about events and procedures; and 3)
establishing therapeutic relationships with children and parents to support family
involvement in each child's care. Although other members of the health care team
share these responsibilities for the psychosocial concerns of the child and the family,
for the child life specialist, this is the primary role. The child life specialist focuses on
the strengths and sense of well-being of children while promoting their optimal
development and minimizing the adverse effects of children's experiences in a hospital
setting.”
This article explains each component of a child life’s responsibilities and daily routines
with patients. It gives detail on how many patients per specialist there are. Article is very
descriptive in the duties that must be performed.
Source Three: Child Life Specialists: Making the Tough Times a Little Easier By: Cinda McDonald
Source: The Exceptional Parent 31 no 7 80-4 J1 2001 pg. 80-84
http://rpproxy.iii.com:9797/MuseSessionID=c9a3fbf31e80ec4b3e883aab54192941/MuseHost=f
irstsearch.oclc.org/MusePath/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp4-57745-fsi1whn3tzr0nu:entitypagenum=5:0:recno=3:resultset=1:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.h
tml:entitytoprecno=3:entitycurrecno=3:numrecs=1
-Great source for detail. Goes into depth on what actually happens and is going on during
admission and preparation for surgery. Definitely use this source.
Source Four: Pediatric Anxiety: Child Life Intervention in Day Surgery
Journal of Pediatric Nursing, Volume 21, Issue 1, Pages 13-22
S. Brewer, S. Gleditsch, D. Syblik, M. Tietjens, H. Vacik

Abstract: Although many hospitals offer a surgical preparation program to children and
families, minimal research has been conducted specifically on preparation by child life
specialists. The purpose of this double-blind intervention study was to determine if
children prepared for day surgery by a child life specialist exhibited less anxiety than those
who received routine standard of care. One hundred forty-two children, aged between 5
and 11 years old, undergoing elective otolaryngology surgery completed the study. The
“Child Drawing: Hospital” instrument developed by Clatworthy, Simon, and Tiedeman
[Clatworthy, S., Simon, K., & Tiedeman, M. E. (1999). Child Drawing: Hospital – An
instrument designed to measure the emotional status of hospitalized school-aged
children. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 14, 2–9] was used to determine children's anxiety
levels preintervention and postintervention. Eighty children received formal preparation
for their surgeries by a child life specialist and 62 received no intervention. The data were
analyzed using a repeated-measures model with intervention, age, sex, and level of
surgery for main effects. The anxiety score change was significantly better for the patients
in the child life intervention group than for those in the nonintervention group, F(1,135) =
4.24, p = .04. The increase in anxiety scores in the nonintervention group suggests that
children could benefit from preoperative preparation. Health professionals, including
nurses, may impact children's abilities to cope with a surgical process. The information in
this study will be useful in deciding whether all children, not just those with a perceived
need, should be prepared prior to an elective day surgery.
Source Five: Child Life Council and Committee on Hospital Care
PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 4 October 2006, pp. 1757-1763 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-1941)

Does really well at explaining child life and is separated into sections. Also it gives services
and recommendations.
Source Six: To be recorded later. Certified Child Life Specialist from Mott Children’s Hospital
Source Seven: To be recorded later. Patient/family at Mott Children’s Hospital