voice and vision of the child
Atharva Sonawane | Kshitij Palresha | Vijay Palaparty | Nalini Prakash
inquiry
Children demonstrate forms of intelligence rooted in embodied experiences and collaborative practices, ways of knowing. They express emotions, feelings and mental states through creative exploration and play.
Creating participatory engagements designed to afford children opportunities to express complex emotions beyond joy or sorrow, acknowledging identity and imagination to foster empathy, agency, and belonging. Reinforcing emotional safety and expression, the aim is to explore and design child-led spaces where young voices can safely emerge and be themselves.
our practice+position
A participatory, action-research based practice of designing through listening, care, and collective sensemaking.
Children & Parents | communities
Psychology practicioners
Early childhood educators
Weaving, Connecting & Designing experience/ engagement/ facilitation;
Humanitarian/ Non-profit orgs
Creative practitionersmovement / narratives
children's engagement
MEETING CHILDREN IN THEIR SPACES
POWER OF KEEPSAKES
CHILDREN AS STORYCARRIERS, NOT JUST STORYTELLERS
NATURE AS THE CO-FACILITATOR
WONDER AS METHOD
build Access to SPACES
SAFE, CHILD-LED, multi-cultural
ATD Fourth world festival at Brownsville
"children? is that all the children in the world?"
Take initiative on some activities-may develop guilt when unsuccessful or boundaries overstepped 3-6 yrs
7-9 yrs
Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not
Erikson's stages of development
Experiencing Methodologies & its materiality
exploring methodologies
mask/puppet making collective storymaking movement and rituals + nature
partners/ a neutral space
Parkasa neutral space - not my school, not my home;
Allowingandinvitingallto enter at an equal position minimising hierarchies of teacher/instructor - student dynamics. Positioning children as sophisticated thinkers, storycarriers with embodied experiences. Keeping a connect with nature, providing grounding, to create engagement away from screens
what emerged(care)
Children embody care through their interactions towards each other and people around them;
Permission, sharing & support towards the environment around them; nature and materials
Creating affordances for care* to be a core value through the design of the engagements
*deeply human and collective actions
Team acknowledgement
Atharva sonawane
Participatory design specialist
MFA Transdisciplinary Design;
Nalini Prakash
PhD, BC-DMT, CMA Program Director, Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling Drexel University
KSHITIJ PALRESHA
Experience Designer, MFA Transdisciplinary Design
Vijay Palaparty
PhD candidate, MA Design, Culture, Arts leader
Founder, Artistic Director at Spilling Ink
Miriam Steele
PhD
Alfred J. and Monette C. Marrow Professor of Psychology (Clinical), NSSR; Co-Director of Center for Attachment Research
Maria Carrasco
MA
Vice President, Public Programs, Prospect Park Alliance