Applying a childhood lens to place-making means being curious about how children experience streets, parks and neighbourhoods, and considering what their perspectives can add to the decisions we make. It draws on established children’s rights and participation frameworks, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative and the Lundy Model of Participation.
There are many ways to put this into practice. Children might help shape a particular park or street. A council might develop a children’s charter or childhood strategy. An organisation might include questions about childhood in its project briefs and design processes. The approach depends on the place, the people and the decision being made.
Every footpath, park, street and neighbourhood reflects decisions informed by technical studies, funding, policy, local knowledge and community engagement. Children’s experiences can add something valuable to that picture.
The places we create affect how children move through their neighbourhoods, where they play and explore, who they meet, and whether they feel welcome and safe in public spaces (UNICEF, 2018). Adults can consider children’s needs, but we can no longer experience a place as a five-, ten- or thirteen-year-old does today. Just as we seek technical expertise to understand other aspects of a place, we can seek a different kind of lived experience and expertise from children.
Children’s scale is different. So is their independence. They may find an unexpected place to play, provide insight into challenge, enjoyment and mobility, notice something interesting, or show us where a place feels unfriendly and unwelcoming. Creating space for children to share their experiences reveals things we might not see for ourselves.
There is a strong foundation for doing so. UNICEF’s guidance on child-responsive urban planning connects children’s rights and participation with the design of the physical environments they use every day (UNICEF, 2018). The UNCRC recognises children’s right to express views on matters affecting them and their right to play and recreation (United Nations, 1989). UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative shows how these commitments can be reflected in local policies, plans, budgets and urban spaces (UNICEF, 2022).
A childhood lens offers a way to bring this thinking into the planning and design decisions we already make. It helps us ask who a place serves and what we might understand better if we included children’s experiences among the evidence we consider.
When a decision affects children, engagement can create an opportunity to learn from them. A walk through a neighbourhood, a mapping activity, photographs or a creative exercise might help children show us the places they enjoy, the routes they take and the things they would change.
The method is only one part of the process. We also need to be clear about the decision being made, what children can influence and how their contributions will reach the people making that decision.
The Lundy Model of Participation offers a helpful way to think this through. Its four elements are Space, Voice, Audience and Influence: children need an opportunity to share their views, ways to express themselves that work for them, people with responsibility to listen, and a genuine connection between what they say and what happens next (Lundy, 2007).
This includes telling children how their ideas were considered, even when other evidence or constraints shape the final outcome.
A childhood lens can be explored at different scales. For example:
UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities guidance encourages child-responsive goals to be included in existing planning and budgeting, with clear responsibilities and resources (UNICEF, 2022). There is an opportunity to explore what that looks like in the Australian places and organisations we work with.
A childhood lens begins with recognising that adults cannot fully know how children experience a place today. Whether you’re shaping a park, preparing a project brief or setting priorities for a whole community, there is an opportunity to bring a childhood lens into the work. Invite children to share their experiences where it makes sense, observe how they use a place, or build consideration of childhood into the decisions your organisation makes.
References:
Lundy, L. (2007), ‘Voice is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’, British Educational Research Journal, 33(6), 927–942.
United Nations (1989), Convention on the Rights of the Child.
UNICEF (2018), Shaping Urbanization for Children: A Handbook on Child-Responsive Urban Planning.
UNICEF (2022), Child Friendly Cities Initiative: Guidance Note.
