Abstract
Reviewed by Dr Debbie Watson, Reader in Childhood Studies, Hadley Centre for Adoption & Fostering, University of Bristol, UK
Digital Life Story Work is aimed primarily at practitioners working with looked after young people, such as foster carers, residential workers, social workers and adoptive parents. It is also intended to be relevant to therapists and counsellors working with vulnerable young people engaged in life story work and proposes a number of creative projects that utilise digital technologies in this activity. The authors see this book as building upon the well-known life story work guides of Ryan and Walker (2007, 2016) by incorporating digital technologies as the favoured communication media of many adolescents.
Life story work with children and young people in care or adopted is notoriously challenging and has been addressed by a number of authors, particularly in relation to the creation of a life story book, now a legal requirement for all children placed for adoption (Department for Education, 2014). But the making of a book by social workers – often for younger children who do move into permanent placements – is just one aspect of ongoing work with young people who remain in local authority long-term care. As such, this guide fills a much-needed gap. While there are guidance materials available for practitioners to produce digital versions of life story books, such as the In My Shoes computer-assisted tool developed by BAAF (now CoramBAAF) in the UK (Calam, et al., 2005), this book places the emphasis on the young person’s engagement in ongoing digitally enabled projects that contribute to deeper understandings of their story and origins, and seek to develop a coherent narrative of their past (Livingston Smith and Donaldson Adoption Institute staff, 2014).
Hammond and Cooper offer a straightforward guide to the use of digital tools (e.g. video, audio recording, photography, soundscapes and cartoon production) to enable young people to take part in this work and address many of the technical difficulties that practitioners and others may face. The projects offered are engaging and interesting, and go some way towards meeting some of the challenges of how life story work can capture multiple voices and perspectives (Baynes, 2008; Loxterkamp, 2009). Technologies and platforms are changing all the time, so the book will have a fairly short shelf life in respect of the technical details. However, this should not detract from the use of the projects outlined as new technologies could be incorporated as they arise.
The authors are cautious to point out areas of risk associated with young people engaging in online storytelling around themselves and their families, particularly as regards posting photos on file-sharing platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The inclusion of case studies and learning points where there were errors in judgement brings the issues to life and adds a transparency and honesty to the suggested activities. The inherent risks for young people should not be underestimated, but I welcome the engagement with these issues. Given their everyday use of digital technologies, risk-averse life story work practice with young people is unrealistic. Also, as the authors acknowledge, part of adolescent development is about making mistakes and learning from them. The suggested projects for working alongside a caring adult enable this risk-taking to be supported.
Digital Life Story Work has many strengths and I believe it will be of use to its target audience. Any reservations I have rest on the lack of theoretical engagement in the book. While there are mentions of the value of life story work for the young people, these could have been strengthened to consider the importance of narrative in storying the self, in processes of recovery from trauma and loss, and of the relevance of people, objects and places in a sense of belonging. I also strongly believe that the success of the projects rests on the relationship between a practitioner/carer and the young person. This requires considerable commitment as it needs to be established over time. It is an aspiration we should all hold for young people in care but as we know, the reality can be very different. High turnovers of staff and high caseloads, as well as multiple placements (often out of area) raise challenges for the approach advocated in this guide that are not really addressed.