Page 77 - Meeting with Children Manual

Section 5

P a ge | 75

HOW TO USE THE TOOL
During your meetings with a child, you will gather a lot of information by way of the
four child-focused activities that will inform you about his/her primary interests and
concerns. This is where your observation and listening skills are required.

For each of the 8 main areas outlined in the CYCS, there are three potential actions
for you to take.

1. The first action is to just observe if there was (at any time during the meetings)
an instance or instances where the child focused on, for instance, Item 1, Time.
If the answer is “yes”, then check the box. If there was no reference to Time that
arose during the meetings, then check the “no” box.

2. The second action (if you checked the “yes” box), is to write in the space
provided some examples you heard the child express. There may be positive or
negative experiences noted in each category. It is in the Please Specify area that
you can write down the examples. Verbatim answers would be best, but if you
can’t remember try to capture what the child said.

Some example comments that have been written in this area are:
 “I never have enough time; we always have to rush from one thing to another”
 “I can’t that’s my mum’s time”
 “My dad wants more time with me”
 “I keep looking at my clock in the morning so I know what time I can get up”
 “I like spending time with my mum/dad”
 “I never get enough time with my dad”
 “I need more time on my own. Don’t they know it is not their time?”
 “I am going to decide the schedule; it’s not their time, it is my time”
 “I never know when I will be at my mum’s/dad’s… its always changing”
 “I miss my mum and I want to spend more time with her”
 “I hate going back and forth; I can never do what I want and I never have time to
play with my friends”
 “My dad is always looking at the clock”
 “My mum has a big calendar on her fridge with lots of dates on it – we all have to
look at it”

If you checked the “no” box, simply write N/A in the Please Specify area and move
to the next item.

3. The third action to take is to provide a rating at the bottom of each item. It is a 5-
point continuum scale. You may score an item as high concern (5) if there were
either multiple comments related to the item (for instance multiple worries or
comments about time) or high intensity (emotionality) about one or more
comments about time. High intensity may be related to the tone the child used,
or any strong emotions observed such as general upset or teary behavior. The
more intense a child is about a topic, the more likely it is that you should rate it
higher on the scale. You may also rate a child as high if the child begins to tell you

© The International Centre for Children and Family Law Inc. This material cannot be copied in whole or in part without the express written permission
of the copyright owner.