Telling Your Story

Telling Your Story

Introduction What skills are needed to ‘tell your story?’

Telling your story depends on: l Social communication: o accurate interpretation of the event so it makes sense to you o appreciation of the details your listener already knows and new information they need to know l Memory: o recall of the specific details about what actually happened o information monitoring of what you have already said and what new details you need to add l Language: o use of the vocabulary needed within intelligible sentence structures in an organised manner

Talking about neutral events is usually easier than describing emotive events.

When any young person is required to talk about the offence they committed their language skills may be depressed by strong emotions, regardless of whether they actually have a language difficulty.

Telling Your Story pack includes: a) Three demonstration telling your story sheets: A burglary sequence

A cinema visit

A race

The professional selects one demonstration sheet and models completing it for the young person to see.

b) Telling Your Story template sheet This sheet is for the young person to complete for any event they need to describe in detail.

The columns encourage the young person to sequence the event information, rather than having to organise all the information at once.

The young person may write key information points in each column and/or draw a picture doodle in the blank ovals to aid recall. c) Thinking about Your Story sheet This again focuses the young person on the start, middle and end of the described event.

Each section includes a visual to record thoughts, feelings and the feeling intensity at each point in the event.

The sheets were created with feedback from victims, young people who offend and their families. They were piloted within County Durham Youth Offending Service.

Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) Research has shown that: a) 60-90% young people who offend have SLCN (‘Language and communication difficulties in juvenile offenders’. Sept–Oct 2007. Bryan, K., Freer J, and Furlong, C. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders Vol. 42, NO. 5, 505–520). b) Young people with language difficulties find it harder to tell a story than typically developing young people and require more support from their narrative partner. (‘Narrative in adolescent specific impairment (SLI): a comparison with peers across two different narrative genres’.

Sept-Oct 2007. Wetherell, D.m Botting, N. and Conti-Ramsden, G. International Journal of Communication Disorders Vol 42. No 5 583-605).

Organisations are required by law to make reasonable adjustments to support young people’s known communication needs (Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Equality Act, 2010).

All young people who offend are screened for Speech, Language, Communication and Neurodisability difficulties within AssetPlus. Identification of SLCN must lead to resources that support their communication needs. Resources to help them describe events are crucial for gathering information for pre-sentence reports, referral panel meetings, restorative meetings and work with Youth Offending Service to help the young person learn from what they did.

Authors - Susan Stewart, Speech and Language Therapist and Sarah Caden, Practice Improvement Officer

Telling the story: The Burglary The start

What happened?

When?

The ending?

1st...

Where?

Then...

Who?

This is a ClearCut Communication resource developed by CDYOS. Copyright @2016 Durham County Council. Permission granted to reproduce this sheet for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.

Telling the story: The cinema visit The start

What happened?

When?

The ending?

1st...

Where?

Then...

Who?

This is a ClearCut Communication resource developed by CDYOS. Copyright @2016 Durham County Council. Permission granted to reproduce this sheet for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.

Telling the story: The race The start

What happened?

When?

The ending?

1st...

Where?

Then...

Who?

This is a ClearCut Communication resource developed by CDYOS. Copyright @2016 Durham County Council. Permission granted to reproduce this sheet for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.

Telling the story The start

What happened?

When?

The ending?

1st...

Where?

Then...

Who?

This is a ClearCut Communication resource developed by CDYOS. Copyright @2016 Durham County Council. Permission granted to reproduce this sheet for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.

Thinking about your story The start

What happened?

The ending?

Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

How strong/big was the feeling?

How strong/big was the feeling?

How strong/big was the feeling?

0 None

0 None

0 None

1

Thoughts

2

3

4

5 The most ever

1

Thoughts

2

3

4

5 The most ever

1

2

3

4

5 The most ever

Thoughts

This is a ClearCut Communication resource developed by CDYOS. Copyright @2016 Durham County Council. Permission granted to reproduce this sheet for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.

This is a ClearCut Communication resource developed by CDYOS. Copyright @2016 Durham County Council. Permission granted to reproduce this sheet for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.

Telling Your Story