ABSTRACT
The development of qualitative research among children below teen-age has rather lagged behind the mainstream growth area of research with adults. The ages cited are not absolute guarantees of a particular individual’s stage. On balance then, our methodology with children tries to strike the appropriate combination of techniques to allow us to look at the child’s view of things from a series of different perspectives. Imagine for a moment the standard interview or group discussion where people gather to talk about subjects like food or drink, consumer durables, work or leisure. Children love sorting things out into groups and patterns. It’s much better with children to let this become a fairly active procedure with everyone getting involved at first, in order to familiarize them with the things being sorted and then to introduce structure in the form of suggested categories.
