Child life specialists are pediatric health care professionals who work with children and families in hospital and community settings to help promote coping and adjustment to the challenges of hospitalization, illness, disability and other life changing events. Interventions such as play, explaining a new diagnosis in developmentally appropriate language, providing psychological preparation for procedures, incorporating self-expression activities and opportunities that encourage normalization, and promote children’s continued growth and development are a few examples of child life work.

More information can be found on the ACLP website.

The Child Life Studies diploma program closed in September 2016. Stream 1 of the Masters of Child Life & Pediatric Psychosocial Care program was established to prepare students at a graduate level with the knowledge, skills, and professional behaviours to practice as entry level child life specialists. The Stream 1 program has been endorsed by the Association of Child Life Professionals. This provides students with assurance that their course work in this program meets requirements for professional certification.

Stream 1 is for individuals interested in pursuing academic and clinical training to prepare for a career as a child life specialist. Stream 2 is for those individuals who are already working with children, youth and families as a health care professional and are interested in advancing their knowledge and skills in pediatric psychosocial care. Only Stream 1 leads to child life certification eligibility.

The majority of the courses in this graduate program are online so you can complete them from where you reside. Most courses include several synchronous virtual sessions with pre-determined dates with the remainder done via asynchronous learning. There are however, intensive on-campus residencies for both Streams of learners that are completed over a 4-day period in the fall term. Please view the schedule for Stream 1 or Stream 2 for more details on when these occur.

Our online learning program consists of several learning modalities to ensure the coursework is interactive, engaging and of high academic quality. In many cases, online learning offers more choice, is adaptable to various learning styles and allows for flexibility in your learning environment. Our diverse faculty hold a wealth of expertise and the interactions with your classmates, sharing knowledge, perspectives and experiences will add to the quality of your online learning experience, while creating a community of practice. Faculty will be part of delivering lectures, facilitating discussions, evaluating assignments and providing timely feedback.

It’s important to consider that with online coursework, required readings need to be completed and lectures viewed before you begin taking part in the weekly discussion boards. Online learning requires good time management throughout each semester.

For each 3-credit course you take, you can estimate an average of 8-10 hours per week for required readings, online discussions and assignments.  Some weeks will be heavier when assignments are due in addition to your weekly lectures, readings, and discussion board engagement. This means as a full-time student with 2-3 courses you may have up to 30 hours of academic work each week.

New students are only admitted each fall. Please review the course schedules for Stream 1 and Stream 2 as each course is scheduled to occur once per year in either the fall, winter or spring/summer semester.

The minimum requirement for all graduate programs is an Honours bachelors degree, OR a minimum 4-year degree. Both will be considered.

Our minimum requirement for admission is a B+ average in your final year of study. Applicants may apply during the fourth year of their degree. The pre-admission GPA for eligibility purposes would then be calculated using the 10 most recent upper level courses (300 and 400 level courses) towards your degree.  Post-graduate degree coursework (excluding college level courses) will also be considered in GPA calculation and calculated on a case by case basis.

Yes, please provide transcripts of academic work completed to date at ALL post-secondary institutions attended. Unofficial transcripts can be uploaded in the university online application portal. Official transcripts will be required once an official offer has been received and must be sent directly from the issuing institution(s).

Visit the School of Graduate Studies Tuition and Fees page for more information.

Applicants whose native language is not English will be required to demonstrate proficiency in the use of the English language, as outlined in the Graduate Calendar. Similar to several other graduate programs, a minimum acceptable TOEFL (iBT) score will be 92 overall with a minimum of 22 for reading, 24 for speaking, 24 for listening and 22 for writing. Alternately an overall minimum IELTS score of 7.0 will be required.

No. The email address for your references should be included within your online application. This will then prompt the application portal to send a confidential reference form to your referee(s).  Referees will submit their completed reference through their unique link to the online application portal. Official transcript(s) of academic work completed to date at all post-secondary institutions attended, must be sent directly from the issuing institution(s).  Please note that unofficial transcripts will be considered within your application.

We do not accept late applications. All applications must be complete by the deadline.

Following successful submission of all application components, our program’s Admissions Committee will review and score each application. The top Stream 1 applicants will be invited to participant in our admissions interviews. These are heavily weighted in candidate selection. There are no admissions interviews for Stream 2. Following the full review and scoring process, top candidates will be recommended for admission. All applicants will receive email confirmation on the status of their application.