Child Life Internships

We promote diversity, equity and inclusion within our student program

The 600-hour Child Life Internship at Children's Medical Center Dallas provides a supervised, guided learning experience with children. It has been designed to meet your unique needs and allow you to acquire professional child life skills.

Child Life Internships are offered in spring, summer and fall to students attending a university. They’re organized to meet the requirements of the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) certification, to address your specific interests, and comply with your academic institution's requirements. The internship is a 15-week, 40 hour a week, full-time unpaid position that is divided into two, six week rotations with orientation, site visit and shadow weeks in between the rotations.

The basic components of the internship are organized around the child life competencies. As an intern you will

  • Increase your familiarity with hospital policies and procedures by observing child life staff in various settings.
  • Learn about diverse areas in child life by participating in daily student groups.
  • Work in two different clinical areas of the Child Life Department for six weeks each. In these assignments you provide child life services, under the supervision of a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS), to the patient population served.
  • Participate in multidisciplinary meetings such as patient care conferences and clinical rounds.
  • Complete the following assignments: case presentations, evidence based practice (EBP) presentation, child life talks, pediatric diagnosis presentation, an intern project, weekly journals and required readings.
  • Attend additional learning experiences to meet specific areas of interest or to address the academic institution’s requirements.

The internship curriculum incorporates child life programming challenges and strategies to further your ability to address current health care issues. You will be given the opportunity to:

  • Build independent professional skills
  • Strengthen your therapeutic group play supervision skills
  • Develop assessment and intervention skills with individual patients

Your clinical supervisor, along with other staff members in the department, provides instruction and guidance. You typically will work the same hours as your clinical supervisor. Additional evening, and weekend and holiday experiences may be required. The interns are also required to work a holiday which is either Easter, July 4 or Halloween. 

Students are evaluated based upon the following:

  • Written mid-term and final evaluations using the ACLP Intern Evaluation Tool
  • Objectives determined by the student and supervisor 
  • Objectives established by the student's academic department
  • Completion of all required assignments, which include the ACLP Internship Modules

Download our internship packet for more information

  • Requirements

    There is no application fee to apply to our program. There is also no fee charged to interns who are accepted to complete our internship program.

    To be considered a candidate for a Child Life Internship, you will be required to meet all of the following criteria. You must be enrolled at a university during the internship.

    Please note that at this time, we are unable to enter into new affiliation agreements. Click here to view the list of current affiliation agreements we have with Universities to view the list of current affiliation agreements we have with Universities. If your school is not on this list then you will not be eligible to apply with us at this time. Also, if you are an independent student then, please do not submit an application, as no exceptions can be made by our hospital. You also are required to

    • Have varied experiences with children with at least one experience with children in a healthcare setting and at least one experience with children outside of a healthcare setting. Note-there is no minimum number of hours required with these experiences.

    • Have successfully completed an ACLP Eligibility Assessment showing all 10 required courses by ACLP accepted. Required courses can be in progress at the time of the internship application but must be completed by the start of the internship. 

  • How to Apply

    1. Complete the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application

    Complete the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application found at Application Portal. Detailed instructions on how to complete the application can be found in the guide here Internship Readiness Common Application Guide.

    The application components you will complete include:

    • Completion of the Application
    • Uploading Unofficial Transcripts. Unofficial University transcripts from all Universities. The intern will be asked to submit Official Transcript if/once selected as an intern at this site. 
    • Uploading the Eligibility Assessment

    2. Submit the downloaded application via email

    Once all parts of the online application have been completed, applicants can download the application and submit it by emailing it to internshipapplications@childrens.com
    Note - the Email subject line should state the internship session (winter/spring, fall, summer, and the year)

    The PDF downloaded as part of the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application is the only component that will be reviewed. No additional documentation will be required or reviewed for a candidate’s initial submission (no letters of recommendation, cover letters, resumes, etc.)

    Please note that at this time, we are unable to enter into new affiliation agreements. **Please note that currently, we are unable to enter into new affiliation agreements. View the List of Universities in current affiliation agreements with Children's Health. If your school is not on this list, then you will not be eligible to apply with us at this time.**

    Please contact us at internshipapplications@childrens.com if you have any questions. 

  • Deadlines

    All applications must be submitted by 12 midnight central standard time by the application deadline as specified by Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP). The recommendation forms and practicum verification form must be emailed by 12 midnight central standard time by the same application deadline. 

  • Interview Process

    After initial application screening, candidates will be notified via email re: their status of moving forward to phase 2, which is to participate in a short phone screen with a member from the intern committee. Candidates selected to participate in the phone screen will schedule that via email and then the actual phone screen will be conducted over the phone.  After all phone screens have been conducted, candidates will be notified via email re: their status of moving forward to phase 3, which is the formal interview. Candidates selected to participate in the formal interview will schedule their time slot via email and then the actual interview will be conducted via Zoom.

    Ten candidates will be selected to participate in the formal interview process. At Children’s Health, we conduct Multi-Mini Interviews (MMI) where candidates rotate through 6 stations for 10 minutes at each station and meet with the interviewer individually. Candidates chosen for the interview can choose to participate during either the morning session (8am-11am) or afternoon session (12:30pm-3:30pm). Candidates must be available to stay for the entire time on the dates listed below. There will be a group information session and Q&A at the end. All interviews will be conducted virtually using Zoom for all candidates.

    Interview Dates for 2025:

    • Summer 2025: Thursday, February 6, 2025
    • Fall 2025: Thursday, May 1, 2025
    • Spring 2026: Thursday, October 2, 2025
    • Summer 2026: Thursday, February 5, 2026

  • Offer Process

    Children’s Health follows the internship offer date and process from the ACLP, which can be found at here. 

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