Learn how to genuinely capture the voice of the child in everyday practice beyond tick-box tools, across any sector or setting.

Children and young people communicate constantly but are we truly listening? This session explores how to go beyond formal tools and structured interviews to hear the voice of children and young people.

Drawing on Bruce Perry's work on regulation and relational engagement - including the three Rs: Regulate, Relate, Reason - this session explores what it means to create the conditions in which children and young people can genuinely express themselves.

We look at how they communicate through behaviour, play, movement, and presence, and how practitioners can develop the confidence and curiosity to notice and respond to what they see.

This session is relevant to practitioners across all sectors and settings who work alongside children and young people including education, health, social care, housing, and the voluntary sector.

Learning objectives

• Explain why voice of the child extends beyond formal tools and how it is present in the everyday interactions and observations of children and young people
• Apply Bruce Perry's Regulate, Relate, Reason framework to understand how a young person's state of regulation affects their ability to communicate
• Identify how children and young people express voice through behaviour, play, and non-verbal communication across different ages and needs
• Recognise what conditions relational, environmental, and emotional need to be in place for the voice of children and young people to be genuinely heard
• Describe how to capture and record their voice in a way that is meaningful, child-centred, and defensible in practice

This session will be led by Emily Mitchell.