Keynote from SIRCC 2018 by Dr Laura Steckley and Dr Ruth Emond

1. Exploring the Script: what
might we mean by a
developmental orientation
RUTH EMOND, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING
LAURA STECKLEY, UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

2. Hope for the session
 How might the idea of script or
narrative help us?
 Who should a developmental
orientation be for?
 What might a developmental
orientation be like?

3. Developmental orientation in the here and now
 Emotional Regulation
 Speech and Language
 Self efficacy
 Internal working model
 Generativity Vs
Stagnation
 Cortisol levels
 Social Relationships
• sweaty hands
• racing heart
• shaky voice
• self doubt
• imposter syndrome

4. Thinking about Script
 Dialogue
 Action
 Set
 Instructions for actors and directors

5. Ways of Understanding ‘Script’
Life is a drama
 Sense of who we are dependent on
the world around us
 Seeking acceptance from the
‘audience’
 Given status (part in a play)
 Given role (script)
 There is nothing that can’t be
redefined
Being ‘given’ a script
 What meaning we give to events that
happen to us
 Each have unique scripts that shape
how we experience events
 Created in childhood
 Thoughts about as themes – based on
what others have told us about
ourselves or the world, what we can
and can’t do.

6. Knowing, Being and Doing
(Lefevre 2015)
BEING
KNOWING DOING

7. Past, present and future

8. How might it help?
Relationships– developmental orientation is as much to do with us as the
children we serve
Attention - to who we are in the work (our own past and its impact on present)
Appreciation - knowledge is contested and ever growing
Resistance - to deficit-based or pathologising approaches
Meaningful integration - of theory and practice, keeping ‘the doing’ from
becoming purely instrumental
Need - knowing, being and doing acting together to be effective
A developmental orientation doesn’t really mean anything if it isn’t central to
who and how we are as people.

9. Being hurt and
let down age
three
Understanding it
age fourteen

10. A familiar model
Development does not occur in a vacuum

11. Narrative
Noun
1. A spoken or written account of connected events; a
story.
[… ]
1.3 A representation of a particular situation or
process in such a way as to reflect or conform to an
overarching set of aims or values.
Oxford English Dictionary

12. Narrative Instinct
‘Stories are the means by
which we navigate the world.
They allow us to interpret its
complex and contradictory
signals. We possess a
narrative instinct: an innate
disposition to listen for an
account of who we are and
where we stand’.
(Monbiot, 2017)

13. Narratives: Some considerations
 The micro and the macro
 What we bring – our own
values, beliefs and
experiences
 The narratives around us
 Who’s telling the story; who’s
shaping the narrative?
 Who has power; who has
voice?
 Layers of narrative
Personal narratives, public narratives, collective narratives (alternative)

14. Tools Employed in Narratives
 Language
 Metaphor
 Imagery

15. Language: An illustrative example in relation
to benefits and the welfare state
In a comparative study of British,
Danish and Swedish newspapers
(1750 each from 2004-2009),
Albrekt Larsen found:
 10% focused on benefit fraud;
 19% focused on benefit abuse;
 43% were negative generally;
…in UK tabloid and broadsheets
Chancellor of the Exchequer Spending
Review Statement October 2010
‘[…] nor can fraud in the welfare system
be tolerated anymore. We estimate
that £5 billion is being lost this way
each year. £5 billion that others have
to work long hours to pay in their
taxes. This week we published our
plans to step up the fight to catch
benefit cheats….’
(Church Action on Poverty, 2010)

16.  The National Fraud Office Annual
Fraud Indicator of January 2010
states that £30.5bn of fraudulent
activity took place in the previous
year in the UK, with benefit fraud
accounting for £1.1bn.
 Incidentally, the same source
states that tax fraud accounts for
£15.2bn.
(Church Action on Poverty, 2010)
(Citizen’s Advice Scotland,
2013)

17. Public Perceptions Around Benefit
Fraud (Baumberg et al., 2012)
False
Disability
Claims
False
Unemployment
Claims
All out-of-
work benefit
fraud
Average Person’s Perception 30% 35% 25%
Those who thought a majority of
claims were false 16% 20% 14%
Actual figures for False claims/fraud 1.1-1.2% 3.4% 2.0%

18. Narratives around residential child
care?
 Language
 Metaphor
 Imagery

19. So what might it mean to re-write the
script towards a more developmental
approach?
 Holding in mind the interplay between layers
 Prizing the everyday
 Maintaining a commitment to continual learning
 Living a commitment to a way of being

20. An example: The Development of Shame,
Guilt & Empathy (Dent & Brown, 2006)
Shame:
 humiliating feeling of worthlessness;
 Internally focused;
 Infants begin to experience shame between 7 – 15 months of age;
 A natural part of development.
For experiences of shame not to be damaging, infants must experience
disruption repair:
 Re-establishing of harmony and connection in the relationship.

21. Pervasive Shame
Without disruption repair, children are left with
the flooding of feelings of worthless, being to
blame, being bad.
This tends to be intolerable and
unmanageable. Frequent experiences of being
left with uncontainable shame results in
pervasive shame.
 Hostility & aggression
 Shutting down

22. Guilt
Guilt (sometimes referred to as being ashamed):
 Is outwardly focused on feelings about one’s behaviour towards
others;
 Is linked with the capacity for empathy;
 Develops around 3 years of age.
Children who have pervasive shame are not able to
develop the capacity for guilt

23. Shame & Guilt
Shame  Disruption repair Guilt  all contribute to the
development of a conscience
Shame  no disruption repair  Pervasive Shame  inhibited
ability to feel guilt or empathy

24. Vicious Cycle of Pervasive Shame
Harmful pain-based
behaviour
Child has to
defend against
shame
Carers try to elicit guilt
Pervasive shame
reinforced; child
has to defend
further
Child
with
pervasive
shame

25. Translated to an RCC context: an adult and child caught in
the vicious cycle of pervasive shame. What might be the
scripts?
Child?
 Surface lashing out or shutting
down
 Deeper feelings and beliefs
Adult?
 ‘Professional response’
 Deeper feelings and beliefs
How might these be influenced by bigger narratives at
organisational and societal levels?
 Practicalities like staffing or shift change
 Expectations around control
 Narratives around abuse, professionalism, children in care.

26. Disruption repair
(the Still-face Experiments)

27. Translated to an RCC context, what might be
the scripts?
Child?
 Why won’t you see me; hear
me?
 I’m unworthy of being seen,
heard, understood.
Adult?
 I can see you’re
distressed but I don’t
know what to do.
 I must get this right
How might these be influenced by bigger narratives at
organisational and societal levels?
 Practicalities like staffing or shift change
 Expectations around control
 Narratives around abuse, professionalism, children in care.

28. So what might it mean to re-write the
script towards a more developmental
approach?
 Holding in mind the interplay between layers
 Prizing the everyday
 Maintaining a commitment to continual learning
 Living a commitment to a way of being

29. References
 Albrekt Larsen, C. (2013). Negative portrayals of welfare recipients in the UK press are in
contrast to the positive stories which dominate Swedish and Danish mass media. Retrieved
from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/11/15/negative-portrayals-of-welfare-recipients-
in-the-uk-press-are-in-contrast-to-the-positive-stories-which-dominate-swedish-and-danish-
mass-media/
 Baumberg, B., Bell, K., & Gaffeny, D. (2012). Benefit stigma in Britian. Retrieved from
https://wwwturn2us-2938.cdn.hybridcloudspan.com/T2UWebsite/media/Documents/Benefits-
Stigma-in-Britain.pdf
 Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human
development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 Church Action on Poverty. (2010). Set the record straight, Mr. Cameron [Press release].
Retrieved from http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/news/osbornefrauderror
 Citizen's Advice Scotland. (2013). Myth-busting: The real figures on benefit fraud. Retrieved
from https://www.cas.org.uk/features/myth-busting-real-figures-benefit-fraud

30. References
 Dent, H. R., & Brown, S. (2006). The zoo of human consciousness: Adversity,
brain development and health. In K. S. Golding, H. R. Dent, R. Nissim & L. Stott
(Eds.), Thinking psychologically about children who are looked after and
adopted (pp. 68-97). West Sussex: John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
 Lefevre, M. (2015) Integrating the teaching, learning and assessment of
communication with children within the qualifying social work curriculum.
Child & Family Social Work, 20 (2), pp.211-222.
 Monbiot, G. (2017). George Monbiot: How do we get out of this mess? The
Guardian. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/09/george-monbiot-how-de-
we-get-out-of-this-mess

31. Contact
Ruth Emond
hre1@stir.ac.uk
Laura Steckley
Laura.L.Steckley@strath.ac.uk