Life writings: an autobiographical creation experience in childhood

Abstract

As a narrative psychology founding concept, individuals have an innate capacity to organize their own knowledge and experience, giving them personal meanings. We equip ourselves with this narrative capacity from the beginning of life, through traditions of telling and interpreting stories, and we continue to acquire new resources, communicating our subjectivity and shaping our being within a culture (Bruner, 1990). With interest in the acquisition of these competences, this study analyzes the conditions to a support model for autobiographical construction with children. To this end, it developed an intervention in the form of a Writing Workshop, held in a school supporting association for children belonging to contexts of social vulnerability in Oporto. It was attended by 36 children, aged 7-15 years. An evaluation on the effect of the narrative practice, by means of comparison between the life narrative requested at the end of the activities and the initial one, reveals as expected an increase in productivity among all groups, suggesting a scaffold effect by the support exerted. Finally, a thematic analysis of life narratives led to the identification that children address a wide range of themes, being able to narrate even the most adverse experiences in their lives. This study reinforces the importance of research in the field and encourages the development of narrative intervention practices that facilitate the meaning making process in childhood.