Prejeto 15. januarja 2015, sprejeto 15. maja 2015 Izvirni znanstveni članek UDK 364.4-053.2:398.2 Maša Avsec, Nino Rode pravljice kot sredstvo v socialnem delu z OTROKI Pravljice lahko socialni delavki pomagajo premoščati mišljenjske razlike med otrokom in njo samo ter lajšajo komunikacijo med njima. Za otroka imajo pomembno razvojno in zdravilno moč, zato so koristne pri svetovanju in psihoterapiji. V socialnem delu je pravljica pomembna predvsem kot sredstvo za vzpostavljanje stika in soustvarjanje rešitev. V varnih hišah in materinskih domovih je veliko priložnosti za uporabo pravljic. Te organizacije pomagajo predvsem ženskam, a v njihovo delo sodijo tudi varstvo otrok, učna pomoč ter pomoč pri negi, oskrbi in vzgoji otrok. Ko socialne delavke delajo z otroki, uporabljajo pravljice tako pri delu s posameznikom (npr. vzpostavljanje stika) kot tudi s skupino (npr. delavnice). Pripoveduje jih lahko socialna delavka ali otrok, obstajajo pa tudi druge oblike uporabe pravljic. Raziskava je pokazala, da se večina intervjuvanih socialnih delavk počuti kompetentne za uporabo pravljic, a bi se hotele dodatno usposobiti. Uporaba pravljic je ustvarjalna kulturna dejavnost, za katero so poleg splošne usposobljenosti za socialno delo potrebna dodatna znanja in sposobnosti za delo z otroki, sposobnost uporabe različnih tehnik pripovedovanja pa tudi določen občutek za delo s pravljicami. Zato je pomembno dodatno izobraževanje za takšno delo. Ključne besede: varne hiše, materinski domovi, smernice, kompetence. Maša Avsec je univerzitetna diplomirana socialna delavka. Zanimajo jo zgodbe in pripovedovanje. Kontakt: masha.avsec@ gmail.com. Doc. dr. Nino Rode na Fakulteti za socialno delo Univerze v Ljubljani predava statistiko in metodologijo raziskovanja. Ukvarja se predvsem z metodami raziskovanja v socialnem delu, evalvacijo socialnovarstvenih programov, uporabo multivariatnih metod in merjenjem. Kontakt: nino.rode@fsd.uni-lj.si. FAIRYTALES AS A TOOL IN SOCIAL WORK WITH CHILDREN Fairytales can help a social worker to bridge the gap between the child's and her way of thinking and facilitate the communication between them. For the child they have important developmental and healing powers. That is why stories are useful in counseling and psychotherapy. In social work they are useful principally as a mean of contact and mutual co-creation of solutions. Safe houses and maternity homes are the places where numerous opportunities exist for the use of fairytales. These organizations help mainly mothers, but working with their children is also important. When working with children, the fairytales are used in individual work (e.g. making first contact) as well as group work (e.g. workshops). They are told by a social worker or by a child, but there are also other modes of story use. Most of the interviewed social workers stated that they feel competent for the use of fairytales in their work, but they also expressed a need for further training. Story use is a creative cultural activity which besides general social work competencies requires some additional knowledge and abilities for working with children, ability to use different storytelling techniques and an overall feeling for working with fairytales. That is why additional training and education for this kind of work is needed. Keywords: safe houses, maternity homes, guidelines, competencies. Maša Avsec graduated at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana. She is interested in stories and storytelling. Contact: masha.avsec@gmail.com. Nino Rode, an assistant professor, is a lecturer of the statistics and research methodology at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana. He is interested mainly in the social work research methods, evaluation social security programmes, use of the multivariate methods and measurement. Contact: nino.rode@fsd.uni-lj.si. Uvod