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8. Thinking about the words that you use – example asleep

The following are quick activities to help you think about the words that you use by considering a number of commonly used words drawn from the WiSP corpus of texts (for details see http://www.writinginsocialwork.com/publications-and-resources/).

Read each example and think about the effect of including the information that someone is asleep. For each example, why do you think this is mentioned? What might a reader understand?

  1. Freddy looked comfortable with Mum and he fell asleep on her. He appeared content in the home and Mum was attentive to his needs. She fed him during the visit. (Casenote, children’s)

2. She is not keeping him clean, there was no fresh food at home. His bed was not made and all rooms were very dirty, untidy and smelly. Charlie said he sometimes slept on the sofa with Mum and fell asleep watching TV with her. The home conditions and parenting are not good enough at present. (Casenote, children’s, statutory visit to a 10 year old child)

3. We knocked at the door several times before we got an answer. Dad then came to the door and appeared very sleepy as though he had just been woken up.Jun was wondering about and appeared happy. Dad invited us in. I asked Dad if he had been asleep and he stated he was very tired from doing his night shift, he stated he hadn’t been asleep but his eyes had been shutting but he could still hear everything. (Casenote, children’s)

4. Jo stated that she has visited today and he has really deteriorated. Su (carer) stated that she didn’t really like John. I enquired why and Su stated that John was just sat in the lounge asleep when she arrived and he didn’t really speak with her. (Casenote, Adults)

5. Lin still unsteady mobilising and spending a lot of time asleep. (Casenote, adults)