My Life Story

PC and Mac CD-ROM | Age range 8-16 | £69.95 inc. VAT
Available from Information PLUS

Life story work is one of the most fundamental and effective ways of helping children make sense of the many confusing changes looked after young people have often experienced. We believe that My Life Story is the first ever interactive resource for life story work. The program has been designed from the start as a child friendly CD-ROM with sound, colour, animation, voice, music, animated interactive activities and (of course) a well researched and professional focus on children's needs.

Developed by two highly experienced child care professionals (Bridget Betts and Afshan Ahmad) over two years, My Life Story breaks new ground in resources for direct work with looked after young people. My Life Story sees children's information and feelings as akin to buried treasure - immensely valuable but requiring worker and child together to dig until they can find it. Hence the main menu comes in the form of a desert island with tropical and pirate objects. Click on the objects for animations or to access the various functions and sections of the programme. Clicking on any of the main input section icons takes users to a tabbed "filofax" type page appearing out of the treasure chest and filled with input pages and activities for that section.

The main sections of My Life Story are:

  • Facts and Figures
  • Past and Present
  • People and Places
  • Likes and Dislikes
  • Hopes and Fears
  • Wishes and Dreams
  • Contacts (an interactive address book)

Altogether, My Life Story has over 750 input items, over 40 interactive activities, over 30 printable worksheets and almost 60 pages of professional user training material, including an extensive resources guide. Although the CD-ROM initially cost £195 + VAT, it is now available for £69.95 inc. VAT for all buyers.

"We are very impressed by the simplicity, adaptability and accessibility of this resource. It does not require any degree of computer literacy and can be used by both the professional and the child they are working with to cover all the main points of Life Story work."

L Louise Paterson: Deputy Project Manager, NCH Wellingborough Family Centre

"Having watched my two children using this resource, I can thoroughly recommend it. Anything computer-based is of immediate interest but the excellent combination of music, sound effects, animation and graphics makes it a very attractive programme. In fact, whenever started it was hard to persuade either of them to close it down!"

Adoption UK August 2003

Runner up in the HUSITA Awards, Best IT Application, Oct 2004
Short listed for the Pavilion Innovation in Training Awards, Jan 2004

To view PDF documents of reviews and articles about this publication, click the links below. To view these files you need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Fact sheet
Guardian Society Feature
Evaluations from a presentation in Powys, Wales
Adoption UK Review
After Adoption Review

All files are courtesy of Information PLUS.