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Child Life Specialist Training
July 23, 2008 |
“That’s how children work through things, they play,” says Angie Honeke, a Child
Life Specialist with The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
Everyday Angie plays right alongside the young patients and works hard to help
them cope with their hospital stay. “We’re there to provide as much
normalization as possible and we do that through many different ways explaining
in developmentally appropriate terms for each age level - what’s going to be
happening, what they’re going to hear, see, feel, before a procedure,” says
Angie.
Child Life Specialists are often on hand during and after procedures to help
children and families deal with the situation in a productive way. “We help
during the procedures with distraction and support and we’ll talk about coping
techniques and how they can get through different things the best way possible.
We don’t go home with the families so we help enable the families and empower
them to continue coping past the hospitalization.”
Child Life Specialists have extensive training and education. They’re required
to pass a comprehensive exam and complete a minimum of a 480 hour internship.
But Angie says the end is well worth the means. “Knowing that you’ve helped a
family and really seeing a difference over their hospitalization period is
really neat.”
TThere are currently five full-time Child Life Specialists on the staff at The
Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. All of them hold a bachelor’s or
masters degree pertaining to child development. |
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