Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between child life specialists and residential specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a child life specialist and a residential specialist. Additionally, a child life specialist has an average salary of $55,201, which is higher than the $33,451 average annual salary of a residential specialist.
The top three skills for a child life specialist include patients, child development and patient care. The most important skills for a residential specialist are mental health, crisis intervention, and CPR.
| Child Life Specialist | Residential Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $55,201 | $33,451 |
| Hourly rate | $26.54 | $16.08 |
| Growth rate | 12% | 12% |
| Number of jobs | 90,517 | 49,467 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
The job of a child life specialist is to help children and their families navigate the process of injury, illness, trauma, hospitalization, and disability. These health care professionals perform varied duties that include helping children and their families better understand the procedure and process of their medical experience. They also work on developing strategies to lessen the trauma and improve their understanding of a diagnosis by providing support, guidance, and information to family members. They are also expected to work closely with other members of the health care team in coordinating and managing care.
The residential specialist job is to provide quality support services to consumers that enhance physical, emotional, intellectual, vocational, communication, and social skills according to the individual's needs, abilities, and choices. Their duties and responsibilities include following the guidelines given by their agencies and assisting clients as needed according to their daily plan and schedule.
Child life specialists and residential specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Child Life Specialist | Residential Specialist | |
| Average salary | $55,201 | $33,451 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $96,000 | Between $25,000 And $44,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | L.E.K. Consulting | University of California, Berkeley |
| Best paying industry | - | Non Profits |
There are a few differences between a child life specialist and a residential specialist in terms of educational background:
| Child Life Specialist | Residential Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Psychology | Psychology |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | California State University - Long Beach |
Here are the differences between child life specialists' and residential specialists' demographics:
| Child Life Specialist | Residential Specialist | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 24.9% Female, 75.1% | Male, 29.7% Female, 70.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.2% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 15.6% Asian, 7.0% White, 60.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.8% | Black or African American, 12.0% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 16.5% Asian, 6.4% White, 58.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |