Child Life in Hospitals: Theory and Practice

Good condition

This is a good book to read if you are a practicum or internship student in Child Life. It's an easy read and it gives you different scenarios on things that might happen.

The quality of this book was great, but I would have liked to have known before I bought it that the previous owner had highlighted a significant amount of the text. It is somewhat hard for me to read information that is already highlighted, so I would have probably tried to find one that was not highlighted if I had known this. Other than that, the book is in great shape.

While this book was written in the '80s, it's a critical basic book for those in the Child Life field. It clearly and concisely covers the history of the profession, relevant theories (stress and coping, attachment, play, etc), child development (Piaget, Erikson, Vygotsky, etc), and how they apply to children and families in health care. The books also discusses the crucial aspects of a Child Life program as well as the management of the program and volunteers.The only drawback is that it was written a while ago, and some of the issues have changed slightly (for example, there's no longer quite as much opposition to allow parents to "room in" with their child during hospitalization). However, the book is still an invaluable overview of Child Life, with all the theories and justification for programs, and the nuts and bolts of those programs and what Child Life Specialists do everyday.A MUST read for every student and intern in Child Life, and it's a huge help in studying for the Child Life Certifying Exam. I'd also recommend this to anyone in the pediatric health care field for a psychosocial and family-centered perspective as well as a solid introduction to Child Life services.

I've just started reading the book and am already impressed with the insight that it is providing me. It was a recommendation from a Certified Child Life Specialist to me as I am looking into becoming certified. I highly recommend it.

If you are going into the Child Life field, I would highly recommend this book. It has a lot of good information and it is beneficial to have for the certification exam.