RT Book, Section
T1 Creative participatory approaches, methods and tools
A1 Mercado García, Esther
A1 Iversen, Elin Hassel
A2 Winter, Karen
A2 Ruch, Gillian
AB The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UN, 1989) gives every child a right to participate and be heard. To be seen and heard is essential to all humans. To be given a voice can help the child to find his or herlanguage for self- expression. Children in protective systems need trusting and lasting relationships with adults who care for them. Therefore, professionals must adapt their processes and language to the inner world of children so that their thoughts and feelings can be spontaneously expressed (Wieder, 2017). In this context, the success of our engagement with children depends, in part, on our understanding and appreciation of the unique skills, talents and capabilities of each child. They live in a world of tangible realities and often express their experiences through play (Landreth, 2012). Adults attempting to understand children’s lives and experiences often encounter asymmetries not only relating to age but also to communicative abilities. To overcome these, increasingly innovative approaches have been adopted (Butschi and Hedderich, 2021) and in this chapter we introduce a number of activities that can be used with young children in child welfare and child protection contexts.
PB Policy Press
SN 9781447376057
SN 978-1447376033
SN 9781447376040
YR 2025
FD 2025-08-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/137219
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/137219
LA eng
NO Mercado García, E. & Iversen, E.H. (2025). Creative participatory approaches, methods and tools.  In K. Winter & G. Ruch (Eds.), Supporting young children´s participation in child welfare : European perspectives (pp. 71-97). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.25968905
DS Docta Complutense
RD 14 jun 2026