Child Life Assessment

Book excerpt: This textbook, the first to focus on child life assessment, educates seasoned child life specialists and child life students about the significant impact that robust psychosocial assessments have on child life interventions for children and families coping with hospitalization, chronic illness, and life transitions. Child life specialists engage in a cyclical process of assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation to support healthy development and coping. The authors guide readers through current, evidence-based child life assessment practices and propose future directions for the growing child life profession. The book opens with chapters discussing the foundations of child life assessment including its history, moves to tools and approaches, then considers specific settings and populations, and concludes with future directions for the profession. Case examples and professional perspectives make explicit assessment applications to child life practice.