Co-Designing with Children to Improve Well-Being—In Adults Too

Two children are bending over a wooden table with worksheets, markers, and stickers arrayed in front of them. They jostle each other for the markers and call out to friends at other tables. But this isn't just fun and games. Their aim that day is to develop ideas to tackle a problem many adults experience: feelings of stress!

This scene, which played out during the first of four co-design workshops in Amsterdam in April 2024, shows a child friendly approach to what we already know is key to childhood: the right to participate. The convention of the rights of the child has been ratified by 196 countries since its inception in 1989. One of the rights in Article 12 is the right to be heard and consulted on matters pertaining to them, known as the right to participate. One way for children to participate, and perhaps a more child friendly approach due to its more creative methods, is through co-design.

What is co-design, how can it work and why is it helpful beyond its being a children’s right? Co-design can take many shapes and forms, yet in essence it means including children in a meaningful and child friendly way throughout the design process. The aim is to see children as equal stakeholders throughout the entire journey, respecting their insights as experts of their lived experiences and inviting their imaginations to the topic at hand.

Over the past several years, the concept of co-designing with children has started to gain traction, and in addition to our work at Designathon Works, we are seeing other examples pop up, such as the Co-Design the Digital Future with Kids For Kids workshop held a year ago by the Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop; the intergenerational work underway with youth at Seattle Public Library, and the work of Ir M.A. (Matthieu) Gielen at Delft University in the Netherlands.

For each stage of the process there are different ways to collaborate with children. A major challenge for adults is adapting the way they work to make it child inclusive. For example if you are doing research, you could give children a form to fill in, but you can also: play a game with children; invite them to define terms in their own words; ask them to draw maps of their route to school; or use objects to depict the relationships they experience in their communities. Similarly in the ideation step children can be given space and time to first understand the problem and then with open ended nudges hone in on an idea in groups.

Another key reason for practicing co-design with children is because it can increase their locus of control, and thus in turn contribute to lowering anxiety. In a co-design process, the children's choices of activities and their own judgments and competence really count.

During the co-design workshop series in April 2024, I led our team in developing workshops for eight children from Amsterdam aged 10-12 years. The aim was for them to devise and create an experience for adults. Contrary to popular belief, children are often concerned about adults' problems, and as an added value they often have a fresh perspective to offer. First, the children reflected on the problems of adults and the strengths of children. The children unanimously ranked stress as the biggest problem the adults in their lives experience, with money worries in second place. The children thought they had a better chance of solving stress than money problems.

So what did the children create for adults and how did the adults react?

What emerged from the co-design session was a “de-stress experience“ performed for passersby one afternoon in May of this year.

The experience: When you are ready to de-stress, the children invite you to sit in a chair covered with a sheepskin. Then follows an offering for each of your senses, first up is squeezing in stress balls that the children made from balloons and flour. Then, what turned out to be a real find: putting your hand in a jar of lentils with your eyes closed. During the experience you hear the melody of Für Elise played on a music box. You are then asked what source of stress you would like to get rid of, this is written down on a piece of paper and burned while you watch. So you literally see your problem go up in smoke. To round it off, you are offered a jar of rosemary to smell.

The experience not only empowered the children. It left the adults feeling more relaxed than when they arrived. “Putting your hand in lentils is very soothing and you often have them at home,” said one adult participant. “I hadn't thought of that myself.”

In a survey afterward, all the adults answered 'yes' to the question whether children should help solve adults' problems more often.

Turns out that not only should children be included as co-designers for products and services meant for their use, they can also be facilitated to design experience for adults. The sky's the limit.