STEPHENVILLE — Tarleton State University’s Child Development and Family Studies program recently renewed its Child Life course endorsements with the Association for Child Life Professionals (ACLP), ensuring that students in that concentration will automatically have the 10 courses needed to test for certification.
“Course pre-approval by the ACLP allows Tarleton to be recognized nationally for having the necessary academic standards to meet certification requirements,” said Dr. Deborah Anne Banker, Professor in the Division of Child Development and Family Studies.
The ACLP is a nonprofit professional organization that has developed criteria for Child Life Specialists to establish professional competencies and standards of clinical practice and educational preparation, Banker said. To become eligible to take the Child Life Specialist exam through the ACLP a student must have a bachelor’s degree, complete the 10 specific college courses and fulfill a 660-hour ACLP-endorsed clinical internship. Then they must pass the certification exam.
Universities submit their courses for endorsement to ACLP’s pre-approval process, which examines their descriptions, syllabi and other relevant materials to verify that they fulfill the required content areas, thereby meeting the academic standards necessary for certification eligibility.
Tarleton State’s 10 Child Life courses have been endorsed for the past two years and are part of the Child Life Specialist concentration of the Bachelor of Science degree for Child Development and Family Studies (CHFS).
“Renewing this endorsement ensures that students in our program will have what they need when they apply for the internship and exam portion,” said Dr. Kristina Higgins, Director and Associate Professor in the Division of Child Development and Family Studies.
To learn more about Tarleton’s Child Development and Family Studies program, go to https://www.tarleton.edu/degrees/child-development-and-family-studies-bs/.
For more information about the ACLP, visit www.childlife.org.
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