Discovering what children think: connections between research and practice

Abstract

This paper is concerned with children's involvement in decisions and with what happens when adults communicate with children to discover their thoughts and feelings. It is based on a study of the participation of children aged between 8 and 12 in decisions when they are looked after by local authorities. The paper briefly describes the research and its main findings, before going on to describe aspects of the methodology in more detail. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between the methods used in the research and those used in the social work practice that was in part the subject of the research. The paper argues that, both in research and in practice, a commitment to involving children in decision making must go with a determination to find methods of communication that enable children to demonstrate their competence.