Life stories

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Activity 3: Life story work

You should allow 0 hour(s), 30 minute(s).

Figure 4: On the beach at Southend: Jamie aged 10 with Sarah Burrows and Jamie Knight at the time of the recording

Listen to the Audio clip. You may need to listen to Jamie and Sarah twice while you make notes.

While you are listening, note down:

1. some of the things Jamie mentions collecting for his life story book
2. some of the feelings and emotions he and Sarah mention while they were making the book.

Now read the discussion

Comment

1. Some of the things Jamie mentions are: the date his mum and dad were married and his birth date, ‘all written on nice little cards’, some of his own writing, some baby photos, pictures of him taken outside his father's and mother's houses, more dates and several photos taken by his first foster mother, photos of himself and his foster mother when he went back to Southend, a picture taken of the social services building, photos from the time he was in residential care, his birth certificate and photos taken when he was advertised for fostering as a teenager.
2. Jamie and Sarah mention various feelings and emotions. Jamie says making the book was ‘good’. Sarah says he was ‘an angry little boy, very upset, abandoned…’. She says it was ‘hard’ and ‘quite overwhelming’ going back to see his foster mother while they were researching what to put in the book, because it was ‘somebody from your past’. The picture of the social services building is ‘sad’ to Jamie. Sarah points out that the ‘pictures and things’ don't really show the whole process which was actually ‘difficult for Jamie to do’, particularly remembering his mother whom he hadn't seen since he was five (and still hasn't). One of our course testers who was abused as a child said that she could ‘totally relate’ to the process that Jamie went through. She had felt almost anonymous, without a childhood, until she was 40. Once she realised that she had been emotionally abused she was able to understand why she had never loved her mother. She says she is certain that knowing about her childhood is important to her as an adult. When she became able to remember what happened her feelings about her mother became acceptable to her.

It's important to note that some of the things that happened to Jamie couldn't happen today. The 1989 Children Act (England and Wales) no longer allows what Sarah describes as ‘the voluntary care route’ through which his father put him into care when he was eight, although it does allow for children to be ‘accommodated’ at the request of those with parental responsibility. And of course we'd hope that in working with a child like Jamie social workers might be more careful to help him keep more of the photographs and personal things which anyone needs to look back through their lives. Making life story books with children who have become separated from their original families is now established as good practice, particularly since the Children Act of 1989 with its emphasis on partnership in working relationships with parents and carers. Tony Ryan and Roger Walker have helped children make life story books for many years – they emphasise that good practice means ‘listening to children and respecting their views’ but also warn that it may not always be appropriate for every child and that it should never be used as a substitute for ‘skilled and long-term therapy’ (Ryan and Walker, 1999, p. 4). Nevertheless they argue that:

Ryan and Walker stress the importance of identity and point out that the ‘creation of the idea of “self” is crucial to healthy development’ and that children who have been ‘severed from their roots and [who are] without a clear future’ can be helped if they ‘talk about the past, the present and the future’ (pp. 6–7). Sarah Burrows started the life history with Jamie Knight at a time when he was about to be fostered. She saw it as a way to help him talk about his feelings and perhaps not blame himself or his parents for his past as part of preparation for the future. Jamie had very little left of his early years. Just a few things seem to stand out. At one point when Sarah asks him about his visits to his dad's new family he says ‘I can't really remember, I can only remember things that are written down here.’ The importance to Jamie of piecing together these fragments comes through very strongly, particularly since his own file was destroyed in a fire.

For Jamie, as with other young people who become involved in making life story books, this is a process which has no end. He points out that he can go on adding to it now and it has helped him to remember things about his sister from whom he became separated when he was taken into care and whom he's now thinking of contacting.

Why do Life Story books work?

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