Introduction
Children are cognitively and emotionally complex human beings who deserve to be treated with the same respect that we expect for ourselves, but we often fall short. There is a tendency for people to hear what they want to hear, even when their children are trying to tell them something very particular. Children are often forced to adjust their desired outcome to accommodate an adult’s decision. Children are denied opportunities for growth and development since adults do not believe in their capacity to make good decisions. Listening to children is paramount in their development. The importance of listening to children cannot be overstated. As children grow and develop, they are constantly learning and changing. A good listener is vital in helping them figure out who they are, what they like and dislike, and how to interact with others.
Children are the future of our society, and as such, they should be heard, not ignored. The people surrounding children may influence their lives, but the influence is rarely positive when the parents or significant others force their beliefs onto children. Forcing these beliefs onto them can lead to low self-confidence among those most deserving of a strong sense of self. It sends a message that one person’s ideas about how a child should live their life are more important than what the child wants out of life. Children feel empowered when they can speak for themselves and share their feelings. Speaking for themselves enables them to become open to new ideas and experiences since they see themselves as an integral part of the world around them, not just being pushed in one direction or another by other people. They also become confident individuals with great potential who will contribute to society when they grow up.
There is much talk about listening to students, listening to children, and being available to attend, but only a few do it. Ensuring children are listened to and their voices are heard requires addressing the root causes of why they are often not listened to. Throughout history, children’s voices have been marginalized, especially in political and social contexts. While their needs are essential and their opinions should be valued. Even though there is significant progress in viewing children as human beings who deserve dignity and respect, there is still a long way to go before we can say that children are actively listened to. Children’s needs need adequate attention from the government, schools, and society.
Current Status of the Child’s Voice in Policy and Practice
Children’s rights are human rights, with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Equality Act 2010 are essential pieces of legislation promoting human rights (Isaacs and Triggs, 2018). The Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international treaty that defines human rights for children. The CRC is implemented mainly through primary legislation, including domestic adoption or implementation acts, or by means such as by-laws or religious orders. The primary purpose of the CRC is to protect children from abuse and neglect and to ensure that every child has a right to basic needs such as food and shelter, education, healthcare, and protection from violence. It also protects children from discrimination based on race, sex, and disability. The Equality Act 2010 is an Act of Parliament that prohibits discrimination against individuals based on sex and sexual orientation. It also includes provisions to prohibit discrimination on gender reassignment and marriage and civil partnership status, promote equality of opportunity between those with a protected characteristic, and make further provisions about harassment and victimization.
The concept of children’s voice, participation, and agency refers to how children and youth can participate in the decisions that affect them. Children’s voice is their ability to express their thoughts and feelings and to influence decisions that affect them (Vettori et al., 2022). It involves their right to be listened to, heard, and taken seriously. Children’s voice includes having the right to speak freely, having the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions, being valued for what they have to say, feeling safe enough to speak up; and being treated as an equal. It means that adults consider children’s views and do not impose theirs on them without considering what children have said. Children’s participation is about getting involved in decision-making, having a say in what goes on around them, having their opinions heard, and influencing decisions. Participation involves active involvement, and for it to be accurate, it must be meaningful, genuine, and direct. Agency is the ability to act on one’s behalf, controlling one’s life.
The two pieces of legislation are particularly relevant for practitioners working with children. Article 12 of CRC details how a child is entitled to freedom of expression, which includes freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice (Daly and Leviner, 2022). In addition, the Equality Act 2010 protects children from discrimination in areas such as education and housing. All childcare professionals should know these laws and ensure they act within their intended spirit.
Participation rights are essential for children to develop average social and emotional growth. For example, freedom of speech is a participation right vital to creating a healthy personality. If a child is not granted this right at home, they may become withdrawn in other settings and have trouble with their peers and adults when they do not feel like they have been heard. A lack of participation rights can also lead to low self-esteem (Van Reeuwijk, 2018). Children need to feel like they are part of their family and community. They need to feel included in decision-making and have a voice in the family. If they do not grow up with these feelings of belonging, they will never truly feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. This could lead them to feel isolated from society as well as from their own families.
Challenges of Engagement with Children and Young People in a Professional Context
Power Imbalance
Power is the capacity of one person to influence or control the conduct or decisions of another. Power imbalance occurs when one party has greater control over another party. Children are more vulnerable to the decisions made by adults than independent adults. When a child is born, they do not possess all the necessary skills to survive independently, which makes them dependent on those who care for them, and this is a situation where the difference in power becomes evident. Due to their vulnerability, children are clearly at the disadvantage of being unable to make their own decisions. It means that without proper guidance from an adult or someone of equal Power as, they may not have any say in what happens in their daily lives (Reis and Isidório, 2019). Due to issues of power imbalance, children have minimal rights when it comes to engaging with what happens around them, which means that they do not have a right to participate in decisions that affect them actively.
Attitudes
Listening is a skill that is often not mastered by some adults. It can be perceived as a barrier that hinders children’s right to active Engagement and the decision-making process about things that affect them (Abali and Yazici, 2020). It also makes it difficult for them to communicate their needs and thoughts and express their views. This can lead to frustration, resulting in children withholding information from adults who are supposed to be responsible for their care. Active listening helps follow up on what someone else is saying and allows individuals to focus on what children are saying without interrupting them. It is not just waiting for the speaker to finish his speech but also following up by paraphrasing what they have said. It also involves rephrasing what you have heard from others’ points of view in your own words to ensure that you understood correctly, or confirming that you have listened correctly by asking them to repeat or clarify something they have said.
Children’s Positioning within the Society
Children are positioned as immature and need protection and guidance from parents and guardians. This position limits the ability of children to participate in society as equals (Jiang and Ngai, 2020). Children’s only role is to learn from the adults around them; they are not perceived as active participants in their learning who can make their own decisions about their path in life. Constructs of childhood, such as “the child as innocent,” have additionally limited the child to being perceived by adults as without capability. Children are seen as having no fundamental understanding of the world around them or what is happening to them due to their lack of experience or knowledge. Adults cannot see that children have these understandings but choose not to act on them because they do not want the responsibility associated with adulthood. The construct of “the child as vulnerable” has further limited the perception that children are incapable by leading adults to believe that children are easily manipulated into believing anything they hear and cannot discern truth from falsity.
Non-communicative Children
Some children have less understanding of the world around them in terms of both physical surroundings and societal norms. They also need to gain more knowledge of the impact of their actions or words on others. Their voice is more challenging to hear, or they may use different communication methods. Their ability to communicate may be limited by sensory issues, such as an inability to listen to their voice above background noise, physical disability, or mental health issues. They rely on somebody else for support when communicating, which limits their ability to express themselves freely if that support is not received.
More Vulnerable Children
Although most children can be engaged in the decision-making process, others may need help. For instance, younger people need to gain the cognitive capacity or language skills to be involved in a conversation about making difficult decisions. Some children also need more interpersonal skills and maturity to engage in decision-making appropriately. These children must be protected from exploitation and taken care of by someone who can make decisions on their behalf. This shows the more vulnerable children cannot engage in decision-making in matters that affect them. The decisions made might not favor them appropriately since they cannot participate actively.
Theoretical Approaches Supporting Children’s Engagement
French and Raven’s (1959) Theory
French and Raven (1959) identified five forms of Power that children may possess in a classroom setting (Christopher Rolfe Agnew and Harman, 2019). The five forms of Power are legitimate, coercive, expert, referent, and reward Power. Reward Power is the Power to deliver or withhold benefits to get what one wants. Coercive Power is the Power to punish by withdrawal or denial of benefits. Legitimate Power is the Power that comes from being an authority in a child’s eyes. Referent Power is the ability to be admired and respected by a child. Expert Power is the Power that comes from having knowledge that is useful to others.
Hart’s Ladder of Children Participation
The model of children’s participation in education is presented in a hierarchy that ranges from no children’s participation to total children’s participation (Gaber, 2019). The ladder, as Hart calls it, is supported by his children’s participation theory. The first step on the ladder is no children’s participation or, in other words, the teacher’s decision-making without any involvement of the child and his needs. This approach will lead to the child being passive and obedient and will not develop his sense of agency. The step on the ladder implies that children do not have a right to express their opinions but only have a right to be obedient and rigid. This approach will create passive students who can only have their ideas or voices sometimes. The ladder then constitutes a step towards the child having some power over what he wants to learn. The teacher still has more power than the child, but this way he can influence the system. Children at this stage are active participants in their own sense but are still underdeveloped when it comes to having an independent opinion or being creative.
Treseder’s Degree of Participation (1997)
Treseder’s Degree of Participation theory was a qualitative study regarding the degree to which children were empowered to participate in their own education and the extent to which they could voice their opinions. The research stated that the more children are allowed to participate, share their views and express their thoughts and feelings, the more motivated they are to participate in school work (Ghazzawi, Pattison, and Horn, 2022). Children’s actions support this theory as a result of being more empowered. Children want to learn as much as possible to express themselves. Therefore, they feel obligated to learn because they know that they have something valuable to say. This makes them want to speak up and show what they know. Educators need to remember this when working with children.
Shier Pathways to Participation
The theory is a framework for understanding the ways that children and youth can have agency in their lives (Corney et al., 2021). It states that all children are active participants who learn how to participate over time through participation in activities that are responsive to their needs and interests. It also says children’s involvement is shaped by social, cultural, familial, and institutional contexts and is affected by things like power inequalities, unequal distribution of resources, hierarchies of knowledge, and access to decision-making processes. Participation should be considered relative to the balance between their personal development and the development of society; society should not pressure children to conform to pre-determined roles or adult expectations but rather allow for individual growth within socially accepted boundaries and structures. While there may be innate differences in children’s abilities and personalities, these things do not determine whether they can participate in a given situation or what kinds of participatory experiences they will have. For a child’s voice to matter, adults must listen when it does speak up.
Strategies Supporting Children Participation, Voice and Agency
Promoting Equality in the Society
Promoting equality and participation of all community members in decision-making can only solve the issue of power imbalance in society. This will give children a voice and their input on the decisions that affect them so they can have agency in their lives. The main goal for children should be to develop a sense of self-worth so that they can participate in meaningful ways in the development of society. For this reason, children must be empowered as individuals and not just as a collective group. Children need to have a say in the critical decisions affecting them, such as policies relevant to health, education, culture, welfare, and other issues. To ensure that the voices of all members of society are heard, governments need to address all inequalities in society.
Active Listening
Children’s participation is significant in a society where they grow up and look for their own identities. Adults have to support this process by giving positive feedback to the children’s constructive contribution and by helping them learn how they can be more effective in expressing themselves. In this way, children will grow up without fear of sharing their thoughts and feelings, which is helpful later when they become part of society. Active listening can help adults support child participation, voice, and agency. Active listening is a skill that adults must learn for them to support children’s development.
Encouraging Non-verbal Communication
To support children in participating, voicing, and having agency in their own lives, professionals need to acknowledge children’s different abilities. Children who cannot or do not communicate verbally can often express themselves through non-verbal communication. This can include gestures, facial expressions, and body language. To support children’s rights, we need to provide opportunities for them to engage with their surroundings. This will help them learn how to communicate with others and how others perceive them. For instance, a child left at home alone may indicate that they need something by gesturing toward it. An older child may be able to communicate needs through writing, drawing, or other art forms. When children can share in these ways, it allows them more independence and opportunities for involvement in activities they enjoy. Professionals should encourage non-verbal communication as it helps non-communicative and more vulnerable children express themselves.
Implementing Participation Models
Child participation is a fundamental human right. However, it remains challenging for children to participate in their learning and development. Children need supportive relationships with parents, teachers, and other adults to help them express their views and opinions, make decisions, and be involved in decision-making processes to develop their agency. Participation in schools is essential not only for children with disabilities but also for all children because it emphasizes the child’s right to be a member of society. Implementing the models is possible because it involves a relationship between adults and children.
Conclusion
Children’s rights are all about protecting children from harm and exploitation and providing them with the opportunities they need to flourish. If a child has a problem with a person or institution, they should have the right to speak out and receive support and redress when necessary. They also need the freedom to express themselves without fear of repercussion, whether that is through speech, art, or play. Children need the opportunity to participate in their development through education, recreation, and family life. Working from these guidelines, we can understand how children develop psychologically and socially throughout their lifetime, regardless of where they live, what culture they are raised in, or their economic status. Young children who are given freedom of choice and voice can set goals for themselves independent of parental influence or direction. They will begin to understand their abilities and limitations and seek out activities that challenge them.
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