About Me
is a resource for practitioners which contains a compilation of tools and resources which Guardians can use with children and young people as part of the assessment and engagement process
The two different resources were prepared for use with both with children and with young people …
About Me – for children
About Me – for young people
| Page | Synopsis | Click on icon to open relating page |
| What does the Judge want to know About Me?
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The introduction provides a script for the Guardian to introduce themselves to the child/young person as well as explaining to the child/young person the roles and responsibilities of other professionals who are involved in the process
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| About Me and Where I Live
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These pages aim to assist engagement between the child/young person and the Guardian, focusing upon the child’s story, their journey so far and current circumstances.
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| Who is in My Family?
Who Helps my Family?
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These pages aim to facilitate a conversation with the child/young person about their family and who they identify as important. The page “Who helps my Family” is designed to help gather information about who the child/young person sees as supportive. Information gathered can provide an insight into how children and young people perceive their own situation, including both protective factors and isolation. These pages may also assist Guardians to explore with children their sense of family, community, and cultural identity.
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| My Family Visits
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Family visits/contact is a major focus for children and young people during Court proceedings, including visits to parents, siblings and other significant people. This page focuses on gathering information from the child about their view on what is helpful about their family visits/contact, what they would change, and if there is anyone they would like to see who they are not seeing at the moment.
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| What About You?
What are you good at?
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These pages are designed to focus on the child/young person as an individual, reflecting upon how they feel about themselves, can they identify personal strengths and resiliences, and what are positive factors/strengths.
“A key theme running through the promotion of resilience is the value of good relationships. It is within the context of warm, interested reciprocal relationships that children learn to feel secure, loved, valued, recognised, appreciated, applauded and celebrated…..School, sport, art, music, part time jobs, friends and relationships with extended birth family members all have the potential to deepen children’s understanding, personal resources and sense of worth”. (Gilligan 2009) Identifying positive factors in the various areas of a child’s life, such as helpful relationships and interests, can contribute to addressing the child/ young person’s capacity to cope with change or challenge and can assist in the assessment of which of the child’s/young person’s strengths and resiliences can be built upon. These pages aim to enable the Guardian to draw a picture for the Court of the whole child/young person based on how they perceive their strengths, in addition to the focus on concerns.
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| Feelings
How are you Feeling Today?
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These pages are designed to enable conversations about feelings, using tools which have been found to be effective in educational settings.
This section also provides a somatic feelings page also used in educational settings and which aims to assist Guardians to talk to younger children and help them to identify how they feel. Using these tools is intended to increase the accessibility of About Me to children and young people.
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| Feeling Safe
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These pages are aimed at assisting the child to talk about safeguarding issues and what factors might impact upon their feeling safe. Third party questioning techniques are used in order to provide a generalised non-threatening way for Guardians to open up communication before asking a direct question, for example, ”What About You?”
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| My Worries
Who Can Help?
Worry Scale
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These pages provide a way of talking to children and young people about their worries and their emotional well-being. The aim is to encourage them to communicate about their worries by talking about the size/heaviness of the worries with visual reference to a worry bag. The question “who can help?” aims to explore with the child/young person whether they can identify anyone with whom they can share the load of the bag, which also addresses if the child can identify a trusted figure who they regard as helpful.
The worry snake is a tool used in educational settings which aims to open up communication about current feelings, for example, “Where are you on the worry snake (scale) now?” The question “where would you like to be on the scale” is a method of questioning used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which is hypothetical and can contextualise current feelings by providing a future focus.
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| Three Wishes … What Would You Like to Happen?
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These pages focus on the future and what the child/young person would like to see happen in school or with family, friends and pets. The aim is to enable the child to talk about their hopes in all areas of their lives and to consider what they would like to be different in the future. Three wishes can relate to reality or aspiration, hope and imagination.
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