You are playing tea parties with four-year-old Fazila, who appears to enjoy making tea and laying out the table. Fazila lines up the dolls in readiness for joining you both for tea. But she puts one doll at some distance from the others. You ask if this doll is coming to the tea party and Fazila replies, ‘She’s a smelly-poo. Nobody likes her.’ You have been working with Fazila’s mother to try to improve the child’s care, but her clothes are still changed infrequently and Fazila often has an unwashed smell about her.
● What would concern you about this situation?
● What should probably be your next step?
