AbstractIn this account I have tried to share one attempt to engage and communicate with two very young children with a history of neglect and separations. The combination of techniques was an effective approach to use with these particular children. I have used a similar combined approach subsequently with other pre-school children, and with one mentally handicapped young girl.The key elements in the approach seemed to me to be to keep the story as simply as possible, to use the same phrases, no matter what method of story telling is used, to find concrete ways of enacting the story (e.g. play figures or puppets), to tell the story in the third person to avoid an over-direct approach, to involve the child actively in the story (e.g. by letting him select the figures), to develop the story to incorporate changes as they occur, and to involve the child's caretakers wherever possible.