Child Life Specialists
Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLS) are health care professionals who are experts at helping kids and their families cope with stressful situations.
If your child is nervous about an upcoming procedure, stressed about a sick sibling or needs some extra support during a hospital stay, our Certified Child Life Specialists are here for you.
How We Offer Support
Certified Child Life Specialists reduce stress and anxiety by learning what each child needs and creating personal plans to support them. Some ways our team can help include:
- Teaching about illness, injury, diagnosis or medical procedures based on a child’s age and developmental needs
- Preparing kids for medical procedures and treatments
- Giving support before, during and/or after medical procedures
- Teaching ways to manage stress (coping plans)
- Learning how to take medicine
- Helping siblings feel prepared, educated and supported
- Making the hospital feel more comfortable and less scary
- Using play to express feelings and teach kids about medical procedures
- Helping kids build their cognitive, motor, social and emotional development skills
- Supporting memory making and creating special keepsakes
- Providing support during times of loss
- Supporting the whole family
Our Child Life Team
Child Life Specialists at Nationwide Children’s hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Child Life or a related field. This means they have completed specialized training specific to this line of work.
They have completed a clinical internship in Child Life under the direct supervision of a Certified Child Life Specialist.
Child Life Specialists are nationally certified by the Association of Child Life Professionals and hold the accredited Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) credential.
Child Life Resources for Families
Nationwide Children’s is pleased to offer clinical experiences for students who are interested in becoming a Certified Child Life Specialist and meet the academic requirements. Please visit the Association of Child Life Professionals website to learn more about requirements for child life certification.
All candidates must be enrolled at a university during their student experience. Please do not submit an application if you are an independent student.
Nationwide Children's Hospital will accept practicum and internship applications starting one month before the posted application deadline. See below for upcoming application deadlines.
- Child Life Practicum: An introductory experience designed to familiarize the student with the hospital environment, the Child Life profession and to gain experience working with hospitalized children.
- Child Life Internship: An advanced experience that focuses on further development of skills in the areas of assessment, planning, implementing and evaluating Child Life interventions.
Application Deadlines
- Summer 2027: Friday January 8, 2027
- Fall 2027: Friday March 12, 2027
- Winter/Spring 2028: Friday August 27, 2027
We comply with the Association of Child Life Professionals' recommendations.
All application components are to be submitted together and received by the deadline.
Please Note: Nationwide Children’s does not offer opportunities to shadow child life specialists.
If you have any questions about our student opportunities, please email ChildLifeStudProg@NationwideChildrens.org.
Child Life Careers at Nationwide Children’s
Looking for Child Life career opportunities at Nationwide Children’s?
