Child Life Practicum

Exciting update for Fall 2026 Practicum Program!

The Child Life Department is committed to training and supporting aspiring child life professionals within our community. As part of this commitment, we are excited to announce that we are piloting a student match program in partnership with Texas Christian University (TCU). For this trial period, we will be partnering specifically with the TCU Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (Karyn Purvis Institute at TCU) to support the education and clinical training of child life students. During this time, we will not be accepting Fall semester applications from other universities or unaffiliated students. Our goal is to thoughtfully evaluate and build upon this match program with the hope of expanding future partnerships to include additional local colleges and universities. By doing so, we aim to increase access to high-quality clinical experiences that are essential for professional preparation in the field of child life. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to sharing updates as this program grows. We are excited to communicate with you about Cook Children's child life practicum. This program provides child life students an opportunity to become more familiar with the field of child life and the needs of hospitalized children, youth, and families. The following is information about this program.

The online application portal for the SUMMER 2026 practicum will open Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 at 12 p.m. CST.

Applicant requirements

• Junior level in college or beyond
• Must have a minimum of 100 hours of paid and/or volunteer experience interacting with children, beyond required experiences for coursework. You must have one experience in the health care setting and one experience outside of the health care setting. 
  • Experience in a hospital or established child life program is preferred
• Applicants must show the following courses with a final passing grade or as "in progress" on the unofficial academic transcript:
  • (1) child development course
  • (1) play course
  • (1) child life course
• Please view this document and visit the ACLP webpage for more detailed information about required courses

Application information

The online application and reference request portals will open Tuesday, Dec.2, 2025 at 12 p.m. CST to receive application submissions for the SUMMER 2026 semester.

• We use the Southern Association of Child Life Professionals (SACLP) Common Child Life Practicum Application (with the exclusion of Essay #6)
• Consideration for child life practicum requires the student to submit a complete application and meet our program's minimum requirements
• Submitting a complete application does not guarantee a student an interview or placement
• Late applications are not considered
• Paper applications are not considered

If you encounter issues with your submission or document uploads, please ensure that:

• All documents are in PDF format 
• You clear your browser's cache and open a new browser before attempting the submission

Child Life Practicum Application Packet

SACLP Practicum Application (excludes essay #6)

Child Life Practicum Application Submission Portal

Program information and requirements

• We follow the Association of Child Life Professional Pre-Internship module standards for the child life practicum (excluding module #4)
• We offer child life practicum three times a year: spring, summer, and fall semesters
• Students will participate in a 5 week program gaining approximately 150-170 hours of experience
• Students will complete two rotations as well as programming observations
• Students will complete the Cook Children’s child life practicum curriculum
• Required immunizations
  • Full Hepatitus B Series
  • MMR
  • TDaP
  • Varicella vaccination or titer
  • Influenza Immunization
  • Negative Tuberculin (TB) Test

Practicum application deadlines

Interview dates

• SUMMER 2026 - Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026
• FALL 2026 - TCU Pilot Student Match Program
• SPRING 2027 - Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026

We appreciate your interest in our program. Please note that due to the high volume of applications and limited capacity, we may be unable to accommodate requests to reschedule interview dates. We encourage all applicants to consider their availability before applying and notify us as soon as possible of any requests to reschedule interview dates.

Additional information

• Current Cook Children's volunteers are required to take a brief leave of absence from their volunteer position if selected for the Cook Children's child life practicum

Questions?

Please email ChildLifeStudents@cookchildrens.org.

Visit our frequently asked questions page to find answers to common questions.