Helping children learn ‘all about me’

1. This is me 

• Purpose: To help the child reflect on who they are and how they view themselves.
• Approach: Encourage the child to explore their identity – how they see themselves, what makes them unique, and how they might describe themselves. This theme allows the child to share their story in their own words and offers valuable insights into their self-perception, interests, and inner world.

2. My favourite things

• Purpose: To uncover what the child values and enjoys, providing a window into their personality and potential conversation starters.
• Approach: Rather than thinking about their favourite people, this theme is more related to things – like colours, hobbies, school or college, and toys. By exploring these things alongside a child, it will add to your knowledge about potential ways into other conversations.

3. My feelings

• Purpose: To support emotional awareness and language development around feelings.
• Approach: Use everyday opportunities to model and name emotions. Help the child distinguish between having a feeling and being the feeling (e.g. “I feel sad” instead of “I am sad”). This helps externalise emotions and fosters emotional regulation over time.

4. People in my life

• Purpose: To help the child understand their relationships and social world.
• Approach: Invite the child to talk about the important people in their life, both past and present. This can include biological family members, foster or adoptive carers, siblings, friends, teachers, or others who have played significant roles.

 5. Places I have lived

• Purpose: To support a child to make sense of past changes and transitions.
• Approach: Many of the children we engage with have lived in different homes, with different families and different carers. It is very helpful for children to consider, comment on and understand the physical journey of their lives and to make sense of the meaning behind the changes. Often children will blame themselves for the changes in their various moves and so this theme can witness their thoughts and feelings around the places they have lived.

6. My future

• Purpose: To encourage hope, imagination and agency by helping the child think about what lies ahead.
• Approach: Support the child in envisioning their future – whether in the near term or long term. This may include their dreams, ambitions, future relationships, hobbies and living situations. It helps them look beyond past difficulties and see the potential in what comes next. There are many children that are stuck in the past and have no way of freeing themselves from confusion, hurt, shame or assumed responsibility, so thinking of what comes next is really helpful.

We’ve created resources which you can use to explore the six themes with children and young people, including:

• The All About Me direct work toolkit: A step-by-step guide to getting started with All About Me direct work.
• Recording All About Me direct work toolkit: A template for recording the outcomes of All About Me direct work.
• Bitesize activities: Activities created by our team of Associate Artists, and designed to help address each of the All About Me themes with children and young people.

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