Mission, Values & Vision
Mission Statement
We, as child life professionals, strive to reduce the negative impact of stressful or traumatic life events and situations that affect the development, health and well-being of infants, children, youth and families. We embrace the value of play as a healing modality as we work to enhance the optimal growth and development of infants, children and youth through assessment, intervention, prevention, advocacy, and education.
Values Statement
We, as child life professionals, value:
Infants, Children, Youth and Families
We recognize the diversity of individual and family strengths and needs, acknowledging their support systems and community links. We promote individual and family integrity, development, and well being by embracing the concepts of family-centered care.
Play
Play is an essential, natural part of childhood, important in its own right. Play facilitates healing, coping, mastery, self-expression, creativity, achievement and learning, and is vital to a child’s optimal growth and development. Play is an integral aspect of child life practice with infants, children and youth of all ages.
Therapeutic Relationships
We are committed to relationships built on trust, respect and professional competence which contribute to the development of confidence, resilience, and problem-solving skills that enable individuals and families to deal effectively with challenges to development, health and well-being.
Communication
Infants, children and youth communicate their needs through words, play and behavior. We are committed to enabling all forms of communication. We accomplish this by observing, listening and facilitating communication with those who may be misunderstood or needing support in order to be heard. Written documentation of child life assessments, interventions and evaluation of outcomes is an essential aspect of our practice.
Theoretical Foundations of Practice
Knowledge and application of our foundations in theories of child development, play, stress and coping, and family systems are the basis for our professional practices.
Professional Collaboration
The shared and reciprocal efforts of individuals, disciplines, organizations and communities are an effective means of meeting the diverse needs of infants, children, youth and families. Child life practice includes professional collaboration, as well as commitment to the education, supervision and mentoring of novice child life professionals.
Professional Standards of Practice
The commitment to excellence and integrity in our professional practices involves lifelong learning, adherence to our code of ethics, and the development and support of educational and training programs based upon defined clinical competencies.
Research
Research is a fundamental tool of inquiry to guide our practices and interventions, and strengthen and promote our profession. Child life professionals have a responsibility to maintain a current understanding of research findings and participate in research that examines our practices.
Vision Statement
The profession of child life will continue to meet the needs of infants, children, youth and families in times of stressful or traumatic life events and situations. The philosophy and practice of child life will be applicable to any health care setting and transferable to other environments or situations in which the potential for infants, children and youth to cope, learn and master is placed at risk. The services provided by the child life profession will be holistic and will utilize applied child development and family systems theory. The objectives of such services will be to minimize the negative impact of situational disruptions while maintaining individual growth and development and family relationships.
Standards of Clinical Practice
Learn more about Child Life Standards of Clinical Practice (3 pgs, 63 KB) 
from the fourth chapter of Official Documents of the Child Life Council, which is available in its entirety through the CLC Bookstore.
American Academy of Pediatrics Statement on Child Life
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released an updated version of the AAP Policy Statement on Child Life Services, which appeared in the October 2006 issue of Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the AAP. The revised policy statement marks the first change since November 2000, and includes significantly expanded content in many areas, along with stronger recommendations for the inclusion of child life services across many different settings.
To read the new policy statement, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics Web site at:
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;118/4/1757