Building Relationships with Children and Families
This section provides practitioners with resources to help gain the voice of the child in developing a trusted relationship with an adult of their choosing. A child or young person (CYP) needs to feel safe in a relationship to be able to open up about their worries and feelings. The resources on this page enable the relationship to be developed and allow the CYP to talk to an adult who knows them best and has the interests of the child at the core of their work.
The following list of resources and tools is not exhaustive, but a starting point for practitioner work:
All About Me
All About Me is a one page document that enables you to build up a profile of a child/young person's likes and dislikes, similar to the My Profile.
Animal Talk
The Animal Talk activity uses animal pictures to get to know children and discuss their views and feelings.
Skittles (Sweets) Game
Use sweets as a tool to provide an opportunity and space to enable a child or young person to open up about their feelings.
Telling People about Myself
A simple 3 statements and 3 questions document, enabling young people to share information about themselves and find out more about someone they are working with or meeting for the first time.
The Three Houses
The Three Houses template enables practitioners to discuss a child's likes, hobbies, strengths, protective factors, dislikes/worries and risks related to the child as well as dreams, hopes and wishes.
Thoughts and Feelings Board Game
The aim of the game is to build a sense of trust with the child or young person. It allows them to openly discuss their thoughts and feelings, without feeling like they are being questioned. It is made to feel like a game, as you are also supposed to join in and share your thoughts and feelings.