CCLS CERTIFICATION EXAM QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED
ANSWERS
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 1 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅lowest risk
- stable medical condition
- good prognosis
- family support
- play/interact comfortably
- minimal signs of emotional distress
CLA provide bulk of care
What Child Life? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅In both healthcare and community settings, Certified
Child Life Specialists help infants, children, youth and families cope with the stress and uncertainty of
acute and chronic illness, injury, trauma, disability, loss and bereavement. They provide evidence-based,
developmentally and psychologically appropriate interventions including therapeutic play, preparation
for procedures, and education to reduce fear, anxiety, and pain.
Therapeutic Play - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅play techniques are used to understand the child's
thoughts and feelings and to promote communication
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 2 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- remaining length of stay
- anticipated future admissions
- parental concerns/frustrations
- family unable to provide consistent support
- uneasy behavior
CLA provide bulk of care
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 3 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- chronic diagnosis
- future hospitalizations
- possibility of death
- medically stable/emotional support from family
,- coping well with hospitalization
CLS provide one lengthy interaction daily (prep, support, play, interdisciplinary communication, etc.)
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 4 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- current hospitalization
notable threat to child/family ability to cope
- psychological challenges in medical procedures/adjustment
(some enter the hospital at this level, some move here due to challenges)
CLS spent considerable time daily (prep, coping, support, play, interdisciplinary communication, etc.)
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 5 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅highest risk; many level 4
factors PLUS
- recent experience of intensive care/trauma/ED
- emotinoally overwhelmed by medical situation
- medical crisis/end-stage illness
- challenging home life
- parents not present
- emotional needs not being met
CLS spent considerable time daily (talk/play out intensive events, emotional support when family not
present, etc.)
Stress Point Preparation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅approach that identifies periods of particular
difficulty during hospitalization and prepares child and family for each by providing information,
opportunities for rehearsal, and emotional support
Possible stress points throughout medical envrionment - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- loud machines
- white coats
- unfamiliar procedures/people
- medical jargon
- hearing screams/cries
- fantasy thoughts (ALL blood)
, - physical limitations
- isolation
- NPO
Sensorimotor Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅0-2 years old
Explore through motor movements and sensations (basic actions)
Understand object permanence
Children acquire motor and reasoning skills, begin to use language, and prepare for more complex
intellectual activities
Object Permanence - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅Knowing that objects exist even when not able to see
them
Pre-operational stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7
years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental
operations of concrete logic
Think symbolically = realize words and pictures can mean objects
Think Egocentrically
Concrete operational - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive
development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations
that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Understand cause and effect
Understand conservation
Formal Operations - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅11+ years old
One of Piaget's stages; includes the ability to use abstract thinking
Concepts learned in one context can be applied to other
Can evaluate different possibilities and outcomes
ANSWERS
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 1 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅lowest risk
- stable medical condition
- good prognosis
- family support
- play/interact comfortably
- minimal signs of emotional distress
CLA provide bulk of care
What Child Life? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅In both healthcare and community settings, Certified
Child Life Specialists help infants, children, youth and families cope with the stress and uncertainty of
acute and chronic illness, injury, trauma, disability, loss and bereavement. They provide evidence-based,
developmentally and psychologically appropriate interventions including therapeutic play, preparation
for procedures, and education to reduce fear, anxiety, and pain.
Therapeutic Play - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅play techniques are used to understand the child's
thoughts and feelings and to promote communication
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 2 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- remaining length of stay
- anticipated future admissions
- parental concerns/frustrations
- family unable to provide consistent support
- uneasy behavior
CLA provide bulk of care
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 3 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- chronic diagnosis
- future hospitalizations
- possibility of death
- medically stable/emotional support from family
,- coping well with hospitalization
CLS provide one lengthy interaction daily (prep, support, play, interdisciplinary communication, etc.)
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 4 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- current hospitalization
notable threat to child/family ability to cope
- psychological challenges in medical procedures/adjustment
(some enter the hospital at this level, some move here due to challenges)
CLS spent considerable time daily (prep, coping, support, play, interdisciplinary communication, etc.)
Stress potential assessment levels: Level 5 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅highest risk; many level 4
factors PLUS
- recent experience of intensive care/trauma/ED
- emotinoally overwhelmed by medical situation
- medical crisis/end-stage illness
- challenging home life
- parents not present
- emotional needs not being met
CLS spent considerable time daily (talk/play out intensive events, emotional support when family not
present, etc.)
Stress Point Preparation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅approach that identifies periods of particular
difficulty during hospitalization and prepares child and family for each by providing information,
opportunities for rehearsal, and emotional support
Possible stress points throughout medical envrionment - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅- loud machines
- white coats
- unfamiliar procedures/people
- medical jargon
- hearing screams/cries
- fantasy thoughts (ALL blood)
, - physical limitations
- isolation
- NPO
Sensorimotor Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅0-2 years old
Explore through motor movements and sensations (basic actions)
Understand object permanence
Children acquire motor and reasoning skills, begin to use language, and prepare for more complex
intellectual activities
Object Permanence - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅Knowing that objects exist even when not able to see
them
Pre-operational stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7
years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental
operations of concrete logic
Think symbolically = realize words and pictures can mean objects
Think Egocentrically
Concrete operational - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive
development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations
that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Understand cause and effect
Understand conservation
Formal Operations - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅11+ years old
One of Piaget's stages; includes the ability to use abstract thinking
Concepts learned in one context can be applied to other
Can evaluate different possibilities and outcomes
