Title: Ladder of Children's Participation – Organizing Engagement
Headings: Ladder of Children’s Participation
Ladder of Children’s Participation
The Ladder of Children’s Participation
1. Manipulation
2. Decoration
3. Tokenism
4. Assigned but Informed
5. Consulted and Informed
6. Adult-Initiated, Shared Decisions with Children
7. Child-Initiated and Directed
8. Child-Initiated, Shared Decisions with Adults
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Content: 1. Manipulation
Participation as manipulation occurs when children and youth do not understand the issues motivating a participatory process or their role in that process. In Hart’s words: “ Sometimes adults feel that the end justifies the means…. If children have no understanding of the issues and hence do not understand their actions, then this is manipulation. Such manipulation under the guise of participation is hardly an appropriate way to introduce children into democratic political processes.” Examples include “pre-school children carrying political placards concerning the impact of social policies on children” when those children do not understand the issues or their role in the political process, and asking children “to make drawings of something, such as their ideal playground,” after which “adults collect the drawings and in some hidden manner synthesize the ideas to come up with ‘the children’s design’ for a playground. The process of analysis is not shared with the children and is usually not even made transparent to other adults. The children have no idea how their ideas were used.” 2.