Understanding Young Children’s Capabilities: Approaches to Interviews with Young Children Experiencing Disability

Abstract

This study examines the efficacy of engaging young children with disabilities in interviews to elicit their perspectives on their own capabilities. Using the theoretical framework of the capability approach, the authors investigated the efficacy of different interview techniques to engage young children with disabilities in research about their capabilities. The study explores young disabled children’s perspectives of their capabilities (those skills and activities that they value), while examining the effectiveness of interviewing children who have delays in development, linguistic, behavioural and social characteristics. Through analysis of four children’s descriptions and demonstrations of their capabilities, both the responses and the interview techniques are analysed. Including young children in research is a relatively recent approach, but this study suggests that young children with disabilities are able to communicate their capabilities and that participatory methods are effective in eliciting their views. As such, eliciting the unique perspectives of young children with disabilities about their capability will enhance our understanding for the purpose of designing early childhood programmes and adequately responding to all children’s needs.