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Social worker and psychotherapist, Katie Wrench, shares an introduction to the importance of developmentally-appropriate life story work.
If you’d like to know more about this topic, Katie will lead a Live Classroom on 21 October 2026 – find out more here.
Life story work is most impactful when it honours the simple truth that children make sense of their lives in different ways at different ages and developmental stages. Whether we’re thinking about a five‑year‑old exploring their story through play, a 10‑year‑old asking important questions about identity, or an adolescent navigating complex emotions at a point of transition, they all need something unique from the adults around them.
This individualised approach is critical – and so much harder to achieve if you’re simply working your way through a session by session guide to life story work. Developmentally appropriate practice isn’t optional – it’s the cornerstone of safe, meaningful engagement with children who have experienced significant disruption to their early development and relationships.
When life story work is developmentally attuned, children are more likely to feel understood, respected, and empowered to explore their past in ways that feel tolerable and hopeful.
When it isn’t, the work is, at worst, likely to overwhelm their capacity to cope or, at best, lead to increased confusion rather than the clarity and coherence the child deserves.
Whatever their age, children don’t arrive at life story work as blank slates. They bring their own language skills, emotional capacity, triggers, sensory preferences, and unique lived experiences and relational context. Developmentally appropriate practice should therefore start with curiosity from the planning stage.
Amongst many other things, ask the questions:
Consider who might be the right people to help you understand this. It might be their parent or carer, a teaching assistant from school, therapist or Educational Psychologist. The better you understand the child’s needs, strengths and motivation, the better able you will be to pace and plan the work.
In addition to thinking about developmental stage, the child’s readiness should guide the depth and pace of the work. This means identifying approaches that the child or young person can understand, tolerate, and fully access.
Build session plans around:
Developmental appropriateness means offering tools that match the child’s cognitive and emotional stage, rather than assuming capacity based on chronological age alone.
Developmentally appropriate life story work celebrates the child’s voice. It invites them to have agency over how they want to tell their story: through art, movement, metaphor, digital tools, or personal objects that hold meaning.
Creativity isn’t an add‑on; it’s a bridge between the child’s inner world and the coherent narrative they’re building. It offers another language when words might be too tricky.
When children are met where they are developmentally, life story work becomes much more than a record of the past. It constitutes a relational process that strengthens identity, builds resilience, and helps them imagine a future shaped not only by what has happened in the past, but by who they are now and importantly by who they are becoming.
Thank you Katie for this introduction to life story work for different ages and developmental stages.
You can learn more about this in a Live Classroom with Katie on Wednesday 21 October.
Katie Wrench is dual qualified as a social worker and art psychotherapist and registered with the HCPC and Social Work England.
Katie has been offering training to local authorities across the UK, IFAs, RAAs and third sector organisations since 2015.
Katie has co-authored a highly accessible book entitled Life Story Work with Children who are Fostered or Adopted: Creative Ideas and Activities, (Wrench & Naylor 2013) that is full of tried and tested creative activities for professionals, parents and foster carers who may have little time and experience of direct work and limited resources. She then authored two further titles, Helping Vulnerable Children and Young People to Stay Safe: Creative Ideas for Building Protective Behaviours and Creative Ideas for Assessing Vulnerable Children and Families.
Learn more about Katie at www.blossomsocialcaretraining.co.uk.
