Page 15 - Meeting with Children Manual

Section 1

P a ge | 13

A central element of the CCCM was the identification of the level of parent readiness
to engage with the voices of their children. The determination of this level is often
made by practitioners based on their intuition. To improve consistency and reduce
reliance subjective interpretation we provided a strategy for identification of the level
of parent readiness, that seeks to apply some decision-making scales to the
determination process.

Level 1 Parents are provided general feedback about the children’s wellbeing and
general information about children at this age and stage of development.

Level 2 Parents are provided with the information from level 1, and additional
information about the specific needs of their children.
Level 3 Parents are provided all of the information from the previous levels and
additional details that each child (after meeting with him/her) agreed
should be shared with parents. Feedback is provided by a Child Practitioner.
Level 4 Parents are provided the information previously outlined and in addition a
facilitated meeting is provided between parents and their children to hear
each child’s concerns and to facilitate comment/feedback/answers from
the parents.

In addition, a scale that assists practitioners to distill the information provided from
child meetings The Child and Youth Concerns Scale was introduced provided to give
parents feedback on the child concerns and the current resilience factors.

Since writing the article we have developed a third scale related to the child/youth’s
readiness to share his/her concerns with their parents; The Child and Youth Readiness
Scale.

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