Young children’s possibilities to participate in care situations and be able to share their experiences
The research project focuses on children in the age of 3 to 5 years. The purpose is to develop and describe how these children express their experiences from different care situations. This will result in an interactive communication tool which will be able to enhance the participation of young children in different care situations.
Background
During the last decades the focus of the child rights issues have increased. One important reason is the UN’s Child convention (Convention on the rights of the child), which was passed in 1989. One of the Child convention’s four fundamental articles focuses on the child’s right to be heard and listened to. While giving the child the right to express its opinion the child gets the opportunity to influence its own situation.
While working with children, especially the younger children, it is important to adjust the way of working to the prerequisites of the child. To communicate with the younger children means to be able to use not only verbal communication but also other ways of communication to get hold of an over-arching picture of the child´s expressions.
The aim
The aim of this research project is to develop and describe how young children, aged 3-5 years, express both verbally and non-verbally their experiences of various care situations, like physical examination of the body and nailing situations. The knowledge will lead to the development of an interactive communication tool where the goal is to improve the participation of young children in various care situations.
