The Voice of the Child Sentence Completion Tool is a free, printable PDF resource designed to help professionals and caregivers capture children’s thoughts, feelings, wishes, and lived experiences in a gentle, structured way. Ideal for use in social work, fostering, adoption, early help, and therapeutic settings, this child-centered tool supports children in expressing themselves clearly and safely through simple, relatable sentence starters.
This resource offers a wide range of themed sentence prompts that cover:
- About My Family
- My Feelings
- School and Learning
- My Strengths and Talents
- People in My Life
- Feeling Safe
- My Wishes and Hopes
- Talking and Being Heard
- Thoughts and Worries
- My Daily Life
- Things I Find Hard or Need Help With
- Rules and Boundaries
These sentence starters help children open up about difficult emotions, trauma, anxieties, and positive experiences, enabling adults to better understand what the child is going through. It promotes emotional literacy, strengthens adult-child relationships, and empowers children to have a voice in their own care and life decisions.
Perfect for:
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Child and family assessments
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Looked-after child (LAC) reviews
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Trauma-informed care planning
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Safeguarding conversations
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Voice and choice initiatives in care settings
The worksheet can be used one-to-one during assessment meetings, emotional check-ins, or as part of longer-term support work. It helps ensure that the child’s voice is heard, their needs are identified, and their perspective is respected in a developmentally appropriate way.
