title: The Voice of the Child in Social Work Assessments: Age-Appropriate Communication with Children.
abstract: This article describes a child-centred method for engaging with children involved in the child protection and welfare system. One of the primary arguments underpinning this research is that social workers need to be skilled communicators to engage with children about deeply personal and painful issues. There is a wide range of research that maintains play is the language of children and the most effective way to learn about children is through their play. Considering this, the overarching aim of this study wasto investigate the role of play skills in supporting communication between children and social workers during child protection and welfare assessments. The data collection was designed to establish the thoughts and/or experiences of participants in relation to a Play Skills Training (PST) programme designed by the authors. The key findings of the study reveal that the majority of social work participants rate the use of play skills in social work assessments as a key factor to effective engagement with children. Of particular importance, these messages address how social work services can ensure in a child-centred manner that the voice of children is heard and represented in all assessments of their well-being and future care options.
authors: TUSLA Child and Family Agency, Roscommon, Ireland.
authors: Lisa
authors: L
authors: O'Reilly
authors: Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
authors: Pat
authors: P
authors: Dolan
keywords: Child protection and welfare assessments; abuse and/or neglect; child-centred; communication; play skills; voice of the child