Child Life Practicum
OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois offers a fall practicum for affiliated and non-affiliated child life students. The purpose of our child life practicum is to provide individuals interested in pursuing a career in child life with the opportunity to gain experience in the field and prepare for internship.
Practicum Details
The child life practicum is 120 hours and is completed over 15 weeks. The practicum schedule may be flexible to accommodate students and child life specialists and may include some evenings and weekends.
Throughout the practicum, students will be exposed to a variety of experiences aimed to:
- Increase knowledge of child development
- Increase understanding of the role of child life specialists working within a multidisciplinary team
- Gain exposure to developmentally appropriate interactions with infants, children, adolescents and families within inpatient and outpatient settings
Observation experiences may include medical play, diagnosis education, procedure preparation and support, sibling support, psychosocial assessment and end-of-life support. Practicum students may also get to participate in creating and implementing developmentally appropriate therapeutic activities under the direct supervision of a certified child life specialist.
Practicum Requirements
- A completed application must be submitted via email to choichildlife@osfhealthcare.org before the application deadline.
- Applicants must submit unofficial transcripts with the application.
- Applicants must complete 4+ courses related to the field of child life before the start date (relevant areas include Child Development, Child Life, Art/Expressive Therapies, Human Development, Psychology, Social Work, Medical Terminology, Anatomy/Physiology, Family Studies, etc.).
- Applicants must have 50+ hours of experience working or volunteering with children and/or families (in any setting).
- Applicant must have completed two years of post-secondary education (i.e. junior standing or above).
- Applicants must be able to complete 120 hours during the fall semester, flexible scheduling.
- Selected practicum student will need documentation of immunizations, including flu, COVID and TB.
- The practicum is open to affiliated and non-affiliated students.
Practicum Dates/Deadline
The child life practicum is only offered during the fall semester. The practicum student will complete the required hours between the end of August and mid-December. Practicum students will set up a mutually agreed upon schedule with the practicum coordinator, once selected.
The application deadline is the fourth Monday in March. Interviews will be conducted in April and offers will be made on the first Tuesday in May.
2026 Dates
Application Deadline: March 24, 2025
Initial Offer Date: May 6, 2025
Please contact the Child Life Department at (309) 624-0223 if you have any additional questions.