CHILD PARTICIPATION ASSESSMENTS
Child participation assessments are crucial tools used to evaluate and understand children's perspectives, opinions, and needs in various settings. These assessments aim to ensure that children's rights to participate and have their voices heard are upheld effectively.
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Child participation assessments
Evaluate and understand your child's perspective.
The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 addresses the best interest of the child standard and the right of the child to participate and express their views in all matters that affect them, as well as their right to be heard in official legal proceedings.
By involving children in decision-making processes that affect them, child participation assessments empower them to contribute to matters that directly impact their lives. These assessments typically involve methods such as interviews, questionnaires, and creative activities tailored to each child’s age and capabilities. Conducting child participation assessments enables professionals and policymakers to gain valuable insights into children’s experiences, challenges, and aspirations, leading to more informed decisions that better support the rights and well-being of children. Ultimately, child participation assessments contribute to a more inclusive and child-centered approach in various domains, including education, healthcare, and legal proceedings
Understanding about the child and their capacity
The “best interest of the child” and the “voice of the child” concept is used so that an understanding about the child and their capacity can be formed by the court. The focus of the “voice of the child” is to:
- Understand the child’s world and all their role-playing systems.
- Understand the child’s socio-emotional functioning within these systems.
- Hear the child’s emotional experience of these systems.
The ‘voice of the child’ practitioner’s mandate when performing a ‘voice of the child’ exercise is to:
- See the world through the eyes of the child.
- Explore and understand all the aspects and factors that influence the child’s world and to understand the current way they experience being in that world.
- Convey and inform by ensuring that the child’s needs and/or wishes are communicated and understood by the parents.
- Induce change by informing both the parents and the child regarding the decision-making process with creative solutions to challenging situations.
A socio-emotional assessment of a child evaluates different systems in the child’s world as well as the child’s socio-emotional functioning in and emotional experience of these systems.
The evaluation aims to identify and understand different factors that might contribute to the child’s current experiences, in order to make the necessary recommendations in the best interest of the child. The evaluation process is conducted from a systems viewpoint that recognises that the child is influenced by the system it belongs to, just as the system is effected by the individuals that belong to it.
Areas that will be evaluated will include, amongst others:
- School and peer relationships.
- Relationship with parents and siblings.
- Child’s experience of marital relationship of parents.
- Relationships with other significant people.
- Relationships in which the child might be experiencing discomfort.
- Attachment.
- Screening for possible exposure to trauma including physical and/or sexual abuse.
- Personality functioning and temperament.
- The evaluation is usually conducted in a history free manner; this implies that the therapist does not have any background information on the child in order to do an objective evaluation.
- Objectivity during an evaluation ensures a sound and professional outcome.