And another five:
Going on a
journey:
Another way of helping young children to open up about their
family and relationship. Draw a picture of a bus or a toy bus and the invite
the child to pretend they are going on holiday with their family. Ask, ‘who
would you sit next to on the bus?’ and ‘where might you like go on holiday’ –
if they draw a tent, ask them who would you feel comfortable sharing your tent
with’……
More
story-telling:
You can also use techniques such as a day in the life of a
child. You can use role play or dolls to take the part of different members of
the family. If you are playing the part
of a member of the family, ask the child what you should say in certain
scenarios.
The magic carpet
ride – this can be useful to assess attachment.
It is adapted by Mary Corrigan 1990.
Introduce a magic story ride – close your eyes, imagine you
are sitting on a beautiful rug infront of a fire at home, on the rug is a
basket of your favourite food. Describe the food, everytime you take something more
food appears. The rug is very soft and it gently lifts up. Hang on as it flies,
it is going down the hall to the front door of a house where the door is open.
Someone is standing there, who is it?
This is likely to be the person they feel most attached to
and safe with.
Body pictures
– this can be useful if you suspect physical or sexual abuse
A body is drawn onto a large piece of paper. Using colouring
pens, invite the child to draw their face then ask them where in the body they
feel happy, bouncy, cold, warm, cross, angry and shocked. Ask if they have had
any bumps and bruises and invite them to draw and colour these in. The child
can make clothes for their picture from wapping paper. Plasters or cream can be
applied to the most painful places so the child feels heard and better.
The window: (this
is very similar to 3 houses).
A worker can draw a window and then the child to draw in the
top right hand corner a picture of something in their past, in the bottom
corner a picture of the present, top left, a picture of their hoped for future
and in the bottom left a picture of the fear that will prevent their hopes for
the future being revealed.
hi
ReplyDeletedo you have any tools or know of any good worksheets or leaflets or techniques (can you tell im desperate?!?!?) that i can use to work with teenagers - 15 years - around keeping themselves safe - ie not going to unsafe people's houses ?
thanks :-)
Hi there,
DeleteI don't know any specific resources but I suppose it's partly about risk taking and maybe peer pressure?
I find searching for youth work resources helpful. I found this one but I have never used it and its 80p to buy a worksheet. http://www.vanessarogers.co.uk/product/activity-05-peer-pressure
Also teenage whisperer blog has some resources.
Maybe you can do some work discussing their peer groups, like using ecomaps and try to explore why they are associating with some people rather than others, what do they get from them. Can you help them find a new support system? A youth group or an activity?
fantastic, ill check out the resources and give your ideas a shot. much appreciated - keep up the good work with the blogs !!
Deletejo
Here's something that should help- http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_risk_0907.pdf
DeleteContains easily readable research findings on how teenagers assess risk, debunking some myths, and also and most importantly provides strategies on how to most effectively get them to think about risk and make safer decisions. In my experience this approach does work.
One way I find works really well in getting through to teens is to not initially talk about their behaviour, but talk about someone else's, usually someone in a TV program or a film you watch together. They can then discuss the issues without getting all defensive, and then it becomes all the more easier to move on to their behaviour.
A great film for discussing risks with girls is Thirteen .
As the research above suggests, you can use the strategy of looking at the potential benefits and costs of each of the decisions that Tracey makes in the film, and explore the benefits of her making alternative choices.
This post on tackling teens resistance to change and to considering doing things differently should help too.
I hope this helps. You have really highlighted in your question that while there is lots on the net about the risks out there, there are no real resources to use with teens that get to the real nitty-gritty of helping them make better decisions. I'll add this to my to-do list!
wow ive just seen this - thank you so much - lots of reading and preparing to be doing this weekend - hugely appreciated.
Deletethanks again
jo