What is the technique?
There are a number of techniques to try with children that can be facilitated with just some coloured pencils or crayons and some paper.
Three Houses
Islands
Faces
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● Three Houses
This technique helps a child or family think about and discuss risks, strengths, hopes and dreams. It is usually most effective with older children or with families where you are finding it difficult to devise an effective intervention plan. You can use it with individuals or with a group. This technique was developed by independent social work consultant Andrew Turnell and is mentioned in the Eileen Munro review.
What resources do I need?
You need three large pieces of paper (A3 or bigger), one for each house, and pens, crayons or pencils.
What do I do?
You, or the child, should draw three houses on each sheet of paper (one house on each piece of paper).
Label the houses:
1. House of Vulnerabilities (for younger children it could be House of Worries or Fears)
2. House of Strengths
3. House of Hopes and Dreams.
Start inside. Inside the first house the child or family should write down anything internal that makes them scared or worried such as self-perceptions, values, beliefs, thoughts and feelings. Inside the second house, write down anything internal that makes them feel positive and happy.
Around the outside of the first two houses the child or family should write anything external that makes them scared or makes them happy and positive such as wider family members, peers, school etc.
For the House of Hopes and Dreams, you could ask the 'miracle question' - what would life be like if there was a miracle overnight and you woke up in a perfect world?
Once you have completed the drawings, discuss what is needed to address the fears, bolster the strengths and achieve the hopes and dreams. Your first focus should be on resources within the family, as this will increase their motivation and avoid giving the impression that external support is being imposed.
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• Three Islands
This technique helps gain an insight into a child's life without having to rely on question and answer interviews, which can be intimidating for some children. The Islands technique was developed by Kate Iwi, young people's services officer at charity RESPECT, UK. We are grateful to Kate for giving permission to use the example.
What resources do I need?
A large piece of paper (A3 or bigger) and some pens, crayons or pencils. For children unable or unwilling to draw, you can use toys and models instead.
How do I do it?
Draw two islands near the top of the piece of paper and a third island towards the bottom. Draw a bridge between the first two islands and a gate in the middle of it. If it helps, name the islands i.e. the 'Island of Always', 'The Island of Sometimes' and the 'Island of Far-Away'.
Explain to the child that this is a game and that they live on the first island. Ask them to draw themselves or use one of the toys to represent them. They can then draw anything else they want to be on this island with them (which could include people, animals, activities, objects).
If you do not have the exact toys / models to represent what a child wants to show, just pretend (for example, a toy plane could represent going on holiday).
On the second island, ask the child to draw or put anything that they want to see but not all the time. Explain they have the only key to the gate on the bridge, so anything on the second island can only cross when the child lets them.
On the third island, ask the child to draw or put anything that they want to be far away from them or never see again.
As the child is drawing or putting toys on the islands, make sure you ask them who or what they are and why they have put something on a particular island.
What am I looking for?
Anything in the drawing or model that seems odd or worrying, as well as anything that makes the child happy.
Warnings
You should be careful about interpreting what is drawn or shown too literally. For example, if they draw a picture of a man and a women fighting, this would not necessarily mean they have experienced domestic violence. Drawings / modelling are a way for the child to express an emotional state or process something they have seen or experienced.
You should avoid questioning where the child places things. For example, you can ask why they have put their mother on the second island but you should not say: 'Oh, but I would have thought your mummy should be on island one?" The child may end up trying to please you (or displease you.)
There may also be immediate reasons why a child has put something on either the second or third islands - for example, they may put their pet cat on island two because the cat scratched them earlier in the day.
This is an example of a completed Three Islands technique:
As you can see, the child has drawn things such as brothers, sister, my heart and love, my brain, godfather, friends, a peace sign and a baby blanket on Island one. On Island two, they have drawn their cat, cousins, aunt and uncle and some other children. On island three, they have drawn sadness and their father being handcuffed by two police officers (this may not be immediately obvious from the actual drawing- it came through discussion with the child of what she was drawing). They have also decorated the islands by drawing the sea and some jagged rocks around the third island.
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● Faces
What is this technique?
This technique consists of asking a child to pick from a range of different facial expressions and assigning them to members of their family. It is a useful method for discovering how a child perceives their family. It is more likely to appeal to younger children or those at an earlier stage of development.
What do I need?
A large piece of paper, pens, crayons or pencils. For children unable or unwilling to draw, it is useful to have some pre-prepared facial expressions such as happy, laughing, angry, hatred, sad, bored, aggressive, relaxed faces etc.
What do I do?
Explain to the child that you want to know more about their family. Show them or draw some pictures of different facial expressions and make sure they understand each expression and the emotion it relates to. For more developed children, you might use a wide range of expressions; for those at earlier stages of development, you might decide just to use two or three (ie happy, sad and angry).
Ask the child to draw you pictures of everyone in their family or the people they live with and then explain to the child that each family member needs to have one of the facial expressions. If they say something like 'mummy is sad and happy' ask if they can pick which one she is most like. Some children cannot choose and may decide to draw more than one head. This is OK and still helpful.
What am I looking for?
You are not only looking for which expressions the child draws but their explanation as to why - what is their thought process behind picking a particular face for one person and another face for someone else?
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