Telling Different Stories: The Experience of Foster/Adoptive Carers in Carrying Out Collaborative Memory Work with Children

Abstract

An understanding of our history and the events that shaped, and continue to shape, our lives, is important to us all. The background literature outlines the positive impact that life story work can have for children in care, although there is little published research to support these claims. Gillian Shotton explores the experience of foster/adoptive carers in carrying out collaborative memory work with children using the ‘memory store approach’. Two to three months after a one-day training course for carers, five semi-structured interviews were carried out with four foster carers and one adoptive carer. Three main themes emerged: impact, motivation and practical aspects. The carers felt the approach had helped them to build a more secure relationship with the child, had an impact on mood, helped to open up conversations and provided opportunities to develop the child's thinking and learning. The children were motivated by the approach and took an active part, suggesting memories to be recorded. The carers valued the opportunity and often recalled experiencing a similar approach when they or their own children were young. The findings indicate the value of memory store, with implications for more carers to be trained in using it and for wider dissemination of the findings. Further research is warranted, particularly to explore the child's experience of the approach.