Child Life Internship Interview Practice

Interview Practice Questions

Obviously you are not going to be asked all of these, but they’re just good questions to practice in front of a mirror, with a friend, or even with a mentor who can give you pointers! I’ve sectioned the questions into 4 categories. If you’re interviewing with a site that does multiple rounds, odds are that you will not be asked the “about you” questions until the final round. At first, they just want to see that you know your stuff!

Questions About You:

• Tell us about yourself (I know, everyone hates this one)

• How did you become interested in child life?

• There are many careers involving service to and advocacy for children and families. Why have you chosen to pursue child life?

• How would your peers and coworkers describe you?

• What makes you stand out? (Why should we choose you)

• Strengths & Weaknesses

• Tell us about your biggest accomplishment/something you're proud of

• What is your favorite developmental age group to work with and what is your least favorite developmental age group to work with?

• What is your least favorite part of working with children and families?

• What satisfies you most when working with children and what satisfies you the least when working with children?

• What was your biggest takeaway from a child life class?

• How do you handle criticism/constructive feedback?

• How do you handle stress?

• How do you work as part of a team?

• What is an experience when you had to be flexible

• How do you handle diversity?

Questions About Child Life Knowledge:

• How do you define therapeutic play?

• What is the value of play for hospitalized children?

• What theorist do you use most? Who is your favorite theorist?

• What are hospital stressors?

• How would you describe child life? (ELEVATOR SPEECH)

• How would you approach someone who does not understand child life?

• What are the roles of a child life specialist? (Use buzz words!)

• What is your child life philosophy?

• What is your perspective on preparation? Have you observed a child not interested in preparation? How did you respond?

• When does a CLS work with other members of the hospital?

• What are the important aspects of building rapport? Give an example.

• When you walk into a room, what are you assessing and how are you assessing?

• What factors do you consider when determining the level of stress of a procedure?

• How do you prioritize?

• Prioritize the following and your rationale for each:

  • Cleaning the playroom

  • Providing support during an IV start for a 4 year old whose parents are present, but the parents are anxious

  • Making team rounds - Providing support during an IV start for a 12 year old who is alone

  • Delivering toys to a patient on isolation

• You have a child screaming in the treatment room, a crying parent and a nurse with a bored 12 yo. Prioritize what you would do.

• Prioritize a 18 mo with an IV start and parents are present, a 12 yo with a broken bone and a 17yo with CF getting an IV placement

• You have a 6yo and a 16 yo, what is their normal development and how has their development been compromised by the hospital? What are some ways you would support and promote development?

• Identify stressors for: a 6-month-old child is having an IV start for the first time. Parents are present and very anxious and worried about how the child will respond.

• Identify stressors for: an 8-year-old child is having an IV start. The previous IV start took multiple sticks. The child’s parents are not present.

• Identify stressors for: a 15-year-old diagnosed with cancer but parents do not want to tell him

• What toys do you bring a 12-year-old with a developmental delay?

• An adolescent has been on isolation for a few days, what items do you bring him?

• An 18 mo cries any time a nurse or doctor enters the room. What do you do?

• How would you prep a toddler and then a school age child for an IV?

• You are leading an activity for patients of different ages. You have paper, string, glue, scissors and crayons. What would you do with these objects?

Questions about Boundaries and Professionalism:

• Describe professional boundaries

• Why are boundaries important?

• How do you remain professional and keep professional boundaries?

• A child hugs you and says you're their best friend and asks for your phone number. What do you say?

• A parent asks you about another child’s diagnosis. What do you do?

• Two patients are fighting over a toy in the playroom. One of their mother’s is in the room, but she is talking on the phone. How would you handle this situation?

• You are asked to perform a task that you feel you are not prepared for. What do you do?

• A nurse tells you that she can do your job. How do you respond?

Internship Questions:

• What is the role of an intern?

• What are you looking for in an internship? What are you hoping to gain?

• What are you looking for in a supervisor?

• How do you use supervision effectively?

• Talk about a supervisor you didn't like and why you didn't like them?

• Talk about a supervisor you liked and why you like them?

• What skills would you like to work on during an internship?

• What have you done to prepare for internship?

• What specifically interests you in our hospital?

• How will you balance everything in internship?

• Do you have any questions for us? (Prepare to be asked this question in all rounds)