Expect the Unexpected while Researching

Children: Methodological and Ethical Challenges

Mumtaz Begum Aboo Backer

INTRODUCTION

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one (wo)man in her/his time plays many parts…

As a researcher, I walked confidently into the school classroom, armed with a planned
script and acting strategies, determined to have my research objectives accomplished. This
is not mission impossible, or so I thought. Healthy, excited, and active ten-year-olds were
eager to hear what I wanted to say. Many little eyes, filled with curiosity pierced my way;
some little hands and feet, waved and threw little pieces of paper in the air; and some little
faces stared at me with bright smiles ready to start in calm while others stormed around
with loud voices. Within 20 minutes of introduction, my voice became hoarse. I knew that
I had to rethink my problem-free philosophy and consider new ways about getting children
to do surveys and focus group discussion. I forced myself to imagine plan B and C
spontaneously. All of a sudden, I was not doing what I was expected to do, instead
researching children led me to take up role-play and I played many parts - first as a teacher,
then as a paramedic, followed by a jury, negotiator, mother, friend and the list goes on.
 These are the lessons I was never prepared with but learned from classroom and the
field while working with children for the past 10 years on various projects ranging from
exploring drama and speech, folktales and performances, dance and music, art as therapy
to digital age communication with children. It is indeed a drama but with no written script,
no appointed director but with a handful of bustling and energetic children thespians. I
received a lot more than I bargained as my initial research became secondary to what these
children taught me; patience, spontaneity, perseverance and flexibility, which were
important elements that influenced and challenged the methodologies, approaches and
ethical related matters in the research. There is no one perfect methodology to work with
children but just be prepared not to expect that your plan will work.

This chapter looks at two parts. The first part of the chapter explores the many roles
I had to take on and describes my experiences as a researcher while researching and
working with children on various projects, in terms of organising, conducting, planning,
and improvising on the spot as the pre-arranged plans had to be re-worked due to the
unexpected reaction and response received from the children. The second part of the
chapter reflects on methodological dilemmas and challenges as well as ethical issues
related to informed consent, confidentiality, protection, and interactions in childhood
settings. The chapter helps us to understand who are these children, what are their interests,
how do they participate, how can their voice, acts, and thoughts give valuable inputs to our
research, projects and activities and why communication plays a significant role in their
lives.

WORLDVIEWS OF CHILDREN

Childhood or child as defined by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is

biologically the stage of human development from infancy stage to puberty. In fact,
UNICEF strongly advocates that anyone below the ages of 18 is still considered as a child.
This statement is further supported by many other theories on childhood such as John
Locke (early 18th century), Jean Jacques Rosseau (mid18th century), Sigmund Freud (1899,
1901, 1905 & 1920) and Jean Piaget (1964), Rudolf Steiner (mid19th century and early 20th
century) & Vygotsky (1978). John Cleverly and D.C. Philip’s works in “Vision of
Childhood: Influential Models from Locke to Spock” (1986) based on models of childhood
deriving from western traditions have attempted to show how conceptions of childhood is
constantly changing. Burgess (2002) states that Cleverly & Philips (1986) whose works
are based on theories which have been developed by philosophers, psychologists, and
paediatricians clearly posit the concept of childhood seem to be eroding and the category
of surplus goods due to evidences of children being abused, exploited, and patronised in
many communities even in today’s modern age.

The early Childhood Care and Education Association of Malaysia (NAECCEM)

divides the development of childhood into three different categories; early childhood (from
birth to six years old), middle childhood (seven to nine years old), and upper childhood
(ten to twelve-years-old). This justification of child development within the specific age
grouping could also be due to the educational level that a child is placed in. Scholars world-
wide generally categorise ten- year- olds as being in their middle childhood stage. Other
researchers believe that the concept of childhood is fading as children are beginning to
vision themselves as young adults who are able to express, reason, focus, plan, and make
sense. This unique group of the larger community or world population is beginning to see
themselves as young adults – caught in the middle between a child and an adolescent. This
can be further understood as them being in a state of a child or middle childhood and
adolescence biologically and cognitively but also wanting to be able to express themselves
freely as adults without being patronised. Cognitively, this group of children have begun
to closely associate with the fact of being human and are now viewed as social actors who
are ‘experts’ on their own lives (Mauthner, 1997; Kellett and Ding, 2004).

CHILDREN AND COMMUNICATION

Natalie Angiers’ work on childhood, creativity, and communication (2007, 2013) discusses
how children are able to control their impulses and have gained the ability to communicate,
reason, and focus. Angiers’ studies are based on Piaget’s middle childhood psychology and
recent findings from the neurosciences on the brain development of children. To prove this,
her study does not just stop at that but compares the brain development between children
younger than eight years old and children above ten years of age.

She (Angiers) puts forth the premise that the brains of children younger than eight-
year-old may know something about death and believes that there are monsters lurking
under their beds. However, this may not be the same for ten- year-old who already have
the ability to fully understand death. They too are able to distinguish between fantasy,
imagination, facts, and logic. Scientifically proven, this is the time when the brain has
reached the adult size, therefore allowing the brain cells and brain domains to organise,
analyse and communicate, thus is capable of accepting or understanding one’s mortality or
even shrugging it aside. This theory is further supported by Benjamin Campbell, an
anthropologist from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in that, children of this age start
to make sense and can perform tasks, therefore becoming economically valuable in some
cultures.

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN RESEARCHING CHILDREN

Through my experience in the field, one needs to be loaded with lots and lots of patience,
spontaneity, and flexibility! Although I have worked with children before in many other
projects, nevertheless, every project is different and nothing of these experiences prepares
me for the other field trip. As a parent and a facilitator to many projects with children, I
always expected them to be quite controllable especially in schools with certain rankings
such as “sekolah terbilang” (chosen school) or “sekolah cemerlang” (excellent school). I
was absolutely wrong to overestimate, underestimate, or assume children’s’ behaviour
through my own lenses.

WORKING WITH PATIENCE WHEN COMMUNICATING WITH CHILDREN

One of the most important value that I learnt in the field is to be patient. Yes, I truly believe
patience is virtue! Of course, as researchers, one has to be patient but working with
children, further requires the researcher to be armed with extra patience. Patience in
curating the activities, asking the right questions, giving them time to understand the
questions, allowing them freedom and space to answer your questions, and understanding
the emotions and situation of the children. The idea here is to shed light on children's
perspectives on their childhood in-school and out-of- school settings. The study is built on
the conviction that children, just like adults, are citizens who hold their own views and
perspectives, they have competencies and the right to be heard, and they are able to speak
for themselves if the appropriate methods and measures are taken into consideration.

It is important to give room for the children to know and accept you. Imagine
working on a project without knowing each other well! So, give the children a chance to
get to know you. Let them warm up to you and vice versa. Start the session by introducing
yourself, inform them where are you from, what are your intentions, a little about the
project, how important is their participation in the project, and then take a lighter note and
assure them that you are their friend and that they are free to leave the session whenever
they want or feel uncomfortable. This is important to gain their trust, eliminate fear,
discomfort, and showing respect to their feelings and them.

I would like to share my experience here working with children in Penang. The
schools that were chosen for the research were co-educational schools located just a few
kilometres away from the bustling town with active boys and girls of different races and
backgrounds. These children were informed about my arrival and research just a few
minutes before I was allowed into their classrooms. I was introduced to them as “cikgu”
(teacher) from a university by their assistant principal. They all looked so eager at me,
stood up and greeted me as “cikgu”. I decided that was the best as I did not want to confuse
them and furthermore, the only difference between a teacher and a lecturer is the place that
one teaches.

With a huge smile, I greeted them back and expressed my gratitude to them for
wanting to participate in the research. Then in a playful mood, I asked them if they would
like to know what the research was all about. I received a thundering ‘YES’. This surged
my spirits and I went on to explain to these eager ten-year-old about my project, the
university, and how they were going to participate in the research.

Once introductions are done, pleasantries and greetings exchanged, it is wise to

have ice-breaking games. Ice breakers and theatre games always work but researcher needs
to choose the suitable games to be played and not too many (two would be ideal) so that
you can keep time and not going off the track. There are many games you can look up from
the internet, books, from other researcher’s experiences, or make up your own games by
modifying existing ones. Ensure that the games are suitable for the ages, gender, and
number of participants. Patience is required in giving out instructions, explaining the game,
the rules, and answering whatever questions they have for you. Remember, all children do
not think, react, and respond alike. Every child is unique in his or her own way. Therefore,
do not expect them to be like your own child, nephew, niece, or the kids that you know.
They come from different cultural, social, economic, and family backgrounds and expect
them to come in varieties and be patient to deal with the interesting diversity as they provide
rich and valuable data for your research.

WORKING WITH SPONTANEITY WHEN DOING SURVEY ACTIVITIES

It is important to take note that ten-year-olds are open to suggestions and are constantly
seeking and asking what should be done next. I find this to be so true while researching
around 60 school going ten-year-olds in two sekolah kebangsaan in Penang. After the
introduction and ice breaking, I brought out the questionnaires for the students to answer.
As usual, they became very excited and some of the children offered to pass around the
questionnaires as a way either to impress me or rather showing off their leadership skills.
I was only too glad for their helpfulness and participation.

In the beginning, things were under control and the children listened to instructions
well. They set off to answer each question in the questionnaire eagerly. But as they flipped
the pages and realised that there were more questions, their attention and focus began to
wane. Many of them started to show signs of uneasiness, discomfort, and boredom. I totally
do not blame them; imagine answering 50 questions on 15 pages before recess!

First and foremost, I would like to explain that the design of the questionnaire was
based on several research done on similar like questionnaires from many countries and also
reviews and discussions among the researchers. The process of coming up with the
questionnaire was a long one and went through many stages before the final one. The
researchers were responsible and ethical for not only wanting the children to answer the
objectives of the research but had to take into considerations such as time factor, level of
maturity, and understanding of the children, cultural differences, and language skills.

Although it was a well-thought questionnaire, yet, I was unable to make the children
sit quietly at their places for more than 10 minutes to fill up the questionnaire. They would
rather move around with the questionnaires and find excuses to justify their acts such as
the need to borrow a pencil or eraser from a friend, to give something to a friend, or the
need to go and pass a message to a friend in the next class or simply need to go to the toilet.
Children who had completed answering their questionnaires too found it difficult to sit
quietly without doing anything. How do we deal with this situation? How do we act in a
situation like this?

A good suggestion would be to break up questionnaire into short sessions, read the
questions aloud and together to ensure that everyone is on the same page. We can also add
some games or music/dance and even storytelling in between the respective sessions of the
questionnaire, in order to avoid boredom and re-strategise their focus. It is also advisable
to be prepared to role-play as a singer, dancer, or an actor/actress celebrity just to get their
attention. You could also get any of the children to role-play, to sing, dance, or even tell a
short story. That could divert their boredom, keep them interested as a group in the project,
and make them feel important and noticed.

WORKING WITH PERSEVERANCE WHEN CHILDREN BECOME DIFFICULT

Working with children requires perseverance in terms of long-lasting energy, stamina, a
few tricks up the sleeves, and not to give up. It is tiring especially if the researcher is alone
and working with many children. We know children are energetic, curious with a short
span of attention, therefore researchers need to be able to know how to handle the situation
if things go out of control.

Admittedly, we had to agree that the questionnaire was too long for the children
and it was easy for them to get bored and lost by the fifth page. As suggested earlier by
scholars that children are ever curious and always wanting to try out new things, the
questionnaire became a little too old after 20 minutes of answering. They began to fidget
and find ways to distract their neighbours by talking to them, looking at their friend’s
questionnaire, taking their pencils and drawing stuffs and laughing about it either alone or
together with their friends. When they were asked politely to keep quiet and to continue
answering the questions, the children listened only for about five minutes and then started
to move away from their chairs and desks.

Soon one by one asked permission to go to the restrooms and before I realised it,
about eight to ten boys were already out and I had to send another one out to go and bring
them back to the class. The rest became movers and would poke their classmates who were
beside them, at the back, and in front of them. Little quarrels and misunderstandings began
to spark and I had to intervene as a jury to settle their issues which were actually nothing
but just as a tactic to gain my attention towards them and not the mission of completing the
questionnaires!

Just imagine I had to work with about 60 curious and bustling children all by
myself, within an hour and a half given, a booklet consisting of 50 questions. By the first
half an hour, not only the children had become restless but I had lost my voice too. Both
the children and I had become quite tired and each time the school bell rang to mark the
end of a subject, they would look at me with their imploring eyes and I, on the other hand,
would return their gazes apologetically as I was still around and they had to still work on
the questionnaire.
BEING FLEXIBLE TO ALTER PLANS

I knew I had to do something before things got out of control. So, I decided to let my guard
down, become more of a friend, and adopted flexibility as my new strategy in an attempt
to keep them with me in this research. I allowed them to move a little and sit with their
friends just as a way to give them some freedom. In between I decided to do some small
exercises like simple stretching of the arms and legs, got them to sing and dance a little.
This got them interested again. Most of them were excited when it came to singing and
chatting about their favourite artists. Many boys and girls were aware with the latest music
on the billboards and charts, locally and internationally. They could even sing their
favourite artists songs and got so excited just speaking about them. For those who did not
know the artists or the latest songs felt left out and this further created a “show off” scene
by the ones who were abreast with the entertainment industry. As usual, this sparked some
misunderstanding between the little “show offs” and their other classmates and I had to
step in as a negotiator to cool off the situation. I realised that the children who did not know
about the artists felt left out and the objective of the research project is to be inclusive. I
took out my phone and Googled for some of these famous artists and showed them. That
made all of them equal and they became happy once again. The most interesting thing is
that their little fights were only for a while, the next minute they would be sitting together
and poking other friends.

WORKING WITH DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOURS IN THE CLASSROOM

Children come in varying characters, characteristics, personalities, and moods.

Some are quiet and wait for you to find or discover them. Others are show offs, attention
seekers, and often disrupt your thoughts and the research /project process. Some children
can also be competitive when placed in a stimulating environment. Amongst the common
mistakes that researchers do is to categorise all children as one size fits all. Often, all
children are looked at, understood, and treated alike. One may ask, “Are we not supposed
to treat all participants the same, without favouritism?” While this is mostly true, however,
there are also instances when researchers need to know how to act, react, and respond to
children who are extremely shy, introverts, and those with disruptive behaviours such as
showing tantrums, being very moody, and uncooperative. This can be very challenging for
researchers as they need to tackle the children with disruptive behaviours, entice the shy
introverts to open up, handle the attention seekers professionally as not to hurt their ego,
and keep up with the competitive ones.

My field experiences taught me a few tips. Keep the attention seekers calm by your
side, while engaging with the competitive ones by throwing them some questions on
general knowledge or subjects that interest them. Then move on to tackle the shy ones, go
closer to them, try to spend some time with them, be more open towards them by talking
more about yourself, the project, and how you value their participation in the project, give
them time but do not force or rush them. If they are comfortable with you and see the
importance of their participation, they will open up and start engaging. As for the children
with tantrums, bad temperament, and mood swings, find out the causes for the disruptive
behaviour. They could be caused by psychological, family background and upbringing,
mental-wellness, learning disorders, abusive background, or simply not interested. Well,
we need to respect their decision if they do not want to join the research. As for the others,
they could be excluded for a while or given time off until they realise that they had
misbehaved and would like to join back. As the person now in charge, the researcher needs
to strike a serious deal with the children that they promise not to disrupt or misbehave.

KEEPING EVERYONE HAPPY AND INCLUSIVE – STORYTELLING SESSION

I struck a bargain with them, promising to tell them stories if they in return would focus on
their questionnaires. This got them to work on their questionnaires faster and better. There
was a difference in their behaviour at the mention of storytelling. As soon as they have
completed their questionnaires, I pretended to forget about the storytelling session but they
gathered around me and made me tell them horror stories. This got me walking down
memory lane, when I was ten years old, my English teacher would tell us a story every day,
win our hearts, and became our favourite and most popular teacher in school. We loved
English more because of her storytelling sessions. The important thing I learned through
this project is that children would always be children even if time changes but some
activities and interests would always remain.

Most of my story-telling sessions involved heritage folktales, stories from our

childhood, and local fables. During these sessions, I noticed that although children knew
some of the stories but they were behaving like it was the first time they were listening to
these stories. When probed, children said that they usually did not have time to read through
the stories and teachers too did not pay much attention to the stories as they are bogged
down with completing the syllabus, exams, and other administrative work. Children are
growing up in a very fast paced world surrounded by technological gadgets, equipment
loaded with digital games, virtual games that has its pros and cons in influencing young
minds in various ways.

I realised that children are missing out a lot on all these wonderful stories furnished
with interesting narratives added with wittiness, humour, and great wisdom. At the end of
the storytelling session, I would ask them for their thoughts, opinions, and how did they
identify or relate to the story. This is important as I get them to reflect and talk about their
thoughts. These are rich data for researchers interested in working with children and
wanting to know more about children and their lives. These projects taught me to always
include storytelling sessions especially relaying folktales, local fables as these stories were
rich with expression, positivity, moral and social values.

Apart from storytelling, randomly I would appoint a child to take some photos and
this got them really excited. Both girls and boys would actually pose for the photos
although most of them were taken while they were working on their questionnaires. They
would pretend to be answering the questions but in reality, they were little cheeky actors
doing their parts as if in an audition. The minute a photograph was snapped, they would all
rush to see how the photo had turned out and even give me suggestions on how they wanted
their photos to be taken. These projects also taught me that I was dealing with children who
were savvy with technology, knew how to use their smartphones or their parents/older
sibling’s devices and were extremely well versed with “selfie and wifie” and boomerang
culture. These are conniving little brats but nevertheless they made me to cherish all these
memories in a nice and priceless way.

METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES WHILE RESEARCHING CHILDREN –

REFLECTIONS AND LESSONS LEARNT

The approaches and methods used or employed when working or researching children must
be appropriate and suitable in order to obtain favourable data in terms of answering
research questions, meeting research objectives and aims, debating problem statement and
positioning the research as being significant and creating impact to the children,
community, and nation building. Both O’Kane (2000) and Mayall (2000) state that the
choice of methods and approaches chose by researchers are usually based on the particular
images of childhood that they have about the children. Punch (2002) identifies three
different approaches to research with children:

• one which considers children as practically the same as adults and employs the
same methods as those used with them;
• one which perceives children as completely different from adults and uses
ethnography (participant observation) to examine the child’s world; and
• one which understands children as similar to adults but with different competencies,
and which has developed a plethora of innovative and adapted techniques.

First and foremost, researchers must ensure that the research is child-friendly and the
approaches must also be friendly to them. As we know, children learn through play and
fun, therefore the methods employed in the research must be well-thought, designed to
include activities that contain play and fun learning elements. Such methods can be
obtained from theatrical approaches such as, games, body exercises/conditioning (fun
ways), role-play, storytelling, and improvisation. These are among some of the methods
which I used when working with children. Theatre games are wonderful way to get children
loosen up, integrate, and warm up to you.
 It is always a good idea to have a co-researcher or partner with you when working
with children. If you have to work alone, then it is absolutely important to work in small
groups of children. This is important as the bonding between researcher-child needs focus.
Therefore, working alone with big groups of children may raise some issues such as:

• unable to control the children

• losing focus because too many of them
• getting tired fast due to having to pay attention to many of the children
• losing voice as the need to speak louder/shout to the big group
• losing intimacy between the group of children and you as the researcher

An additional partner or co-researcher or helper can help to execute the activities and
collect data in a much more efficient manner. While you are focusing on the activities and
the children, the co-researcher or helper can look out for other things like helping to see
whether the children are able to follow, if there are any drop outs or pull outs, taking notes
on certain unfamiliar behaviour amongst children. The role of the co-researcher or partner
is to be the third eye for the researcher, or simply help out whenever needed even by taking
photographs, videos, and arranging the props, materials for the research and activities.

Research with children requires loads of energy. In order to sustain our energy
level, it would be good to carry out activities in small groups. Working in small groups
help researchers to bond with children closely. This intimacy helps children to open up to
the researcher, thus developing confidence to participate in the project. Besides, in the new
normal times such as during the pandemic, it is advisable to work in small groups to
maintain safety of the children and the researcher.

Games, ice-breakers must be facilitated well and instructions must be clear and
simple to be understood. These activities are important to keep the group energetic,
developing confidence but it is also the most effective way for the researcher to introduce
the tools and methods for the research towards data collection. To ensure that the games
and activities are executed well by the children, use simple language to explain the rules of
the games, and how each activity should be executed. Always remember that you are
working with children who may not understand or see things the way you as an adult do.
So, go slow, explain clearly, use simple instructions, short sentences, be clear and not long
winded nor difficult words. Researchers can also employ participatory approaches, invite
children to join the storytelling sessions, singing, dancing or get them to throw in some
ideas or suggestions on games, songs to sing and tell stories about their activities. The
whole idea is to get them to be inclusive and talk about their experiences.

Mixed methods approaches are part of action research welcomed when working
with children to achieve deeper insights and meaning. A mix of oral, visual, and written
activities can be useful as these methods help children to express better. Questionnaires,
focus group interviews, workshop performances are some of the mix method approaches
often used when working with children. Designing questionnaires in terms of the length,
language, objectives, quality and quantity of questions requires careful consideration of the
age of children that we are working with, Questionnaires must be vetted by committees
who are experts in working with children such as academics from educational faculties,
non-governmental organisations who work with children, and social workers who deal with
children. Children are able to express their perceptions, experiences, and ideas concerning
challenges, vulnerabilities, and also their capacities. These approaches give voice to
children; their views, opinions, stories and what are the experiences, knowledge they have
gained by participating in the research.

ETHICAL CHALLENGES – EMERGING ISSUES FOR DOING RESEARCH

WITH CHILDREN

Research requires ethical consideration and researching children further emphasises not
only the safety of each and every child, but the privacy, confidentiality, and consent of the
parents and the child. When undertaking research with children, researchers must seek
access and gain the consent and cooperation from relevant parties whom were also known
as guardians or protectors of the children such as school staff and parents (Cree et al.,
2002). A child must have the freedom to join or withdraw from the research at any point
in time. There should not be enforcement or a situation forcefully getting the child to
participate. As a researcher, it is important to acquire the approval of the ethical committee
or ethics board of the university or relevant boards (schools, education departments) before
meeting the children. The research process and methods must be explained well in the
proposal to the ethics board.

Once approved by the ethics board or committee, informed consent in letter format
must be given to the school and parents of the children. Only children with consent from
school and parents can be admitted into the research. In fact, I strongly feel that children’s
consent to participate in the research is utmost important. Many researchers claim that
children are fully capable of giving their informed consent. Munford & Sanders (2004)
state that in several research studies, researchers have prioritised children as the key
consent givers. Before meeting the children, the researcher must explain to the school
principal, teachers, and counsellors about the research project, the aims, objectives, the
methods/approaches, what are the expected outcomes, and above all how is the research
going to benefit the children. Any research working with children or requires the
participation of the children must benefit or be in favour of the children such as improving
their cognitive, psychomotor, affective skills, promoting creativity, well-being, happiness,
developing confidence, self-esteem, and so on.

Respecting and observing children’s confidentiality is of utmost important and the

highest priority. Researchers must ensure data acquired from children are used in ethical
manner. Names and photos of children or their parents must never be revealed at all. This
is against the ethical codes of a research. Opinions, feedback, stories told by children in
confidentiality must never be disclosed unless agreed by the participant. However, research
dealing with children requires the researcher to be extra careful and sensitive to the feelings
of the children as they are considered as vulnerable group and they must never be put in
any situation that is judgmental, compromising, dangerous, or simply not in favour of them.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that the children are protected at all times
from negative stigmas or environments and research is taking place with safe interactions
in childhood settings. With regards to pandemic and post pandemic situation, research
involving children must adhere to all safety guidelines administered by local authorities
and international bodies that regulate and observe children such as UNICEF and WHO.

CONCLUSION

To sum up the first part of the chapter about expectations while researching children,
nothing really prepares a researcher in the field especially while researching curious little
minds of healthily active children. He or she must be able to act spontaneously, be flexible
and allow the children to come to him/her. Trust is another important factor in building the
relationship between any researcher and his/her subject/informant. In this case, the
researcher must be able to build that trust with these little beings and be ready to discard
the traditional, conventional style of conducting research. Instead, be a sport and start
thinking about unconventional and creative ways of carrying out the research.
Nevertheless, you must not run away from ethical issues. Before you talk to any child, you
must get the written consent of the parents/guardians, school, and the children themselves.
The children can always decide to pull back if they are not interested, tired, bored or any
other reasons and you cannot get angry, scold them, blackmail them or try to sue them just
because they signed your consent form!

Always remember to be a friend to your “little friends” who are so eager to

participate in your research and projects. Be friendly, try to understand them but at the
same time, be firm and try to make them understand the importance of their participation
in the research or project. Making them feel important is a good way to get their attention,
commitment and full participation in your project. Keep the class and your little informants
interested by the changing dynamics of your research activities. List out the activities that
could be carried out with them. If they show signs of boredom, restlessness and tiredness,
carry out other interesting activities such as small exercises, storytelling, little drama
whereby they can be the actors or role-play, charades and simple games that can win their
attention back. Children will always be children but you as an adult can adjust to their
frequency by understanding their behaviour.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project was funded by three research grants: Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia

for the Fundamental Research Grant, “Silk Shadows Speak: A Study on Malaysian

Children’s Voices on Heritage Folktales Using Performative Tool” (2017-2020), Universiti

Sains Malaysia for the RU Grant, “Art Therapy: A study on Children with special Needs-

Cerebral Palsy, Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties” (2014-2017), and Suruhanjaya

Komunikasi dan Multi-media Malaysia, “Media Literacy: Cultivating Productive Practices

among Young People in Malaysia”. A special thanks to The Cerebral Palsy Children’s

Association, Penang, Sek. Keb. Minden Heights, Penang, Sek. Keb. Ayer Itam, Penang,

School of The Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), The Neurosciences Department,

Kubang Krian, USM, Penang General Hospital, parents and guardians of the children and

all the children who participated in the research and performance project. Last but not least,

my deepest gratitude to my fellow researchers and colleagues who actively contributed to

both the researches and the performance project, Professor Dr Mohd Ghouse Nasurruddin,

Dr Johan Awang Othman, Dr Pravina Manoharan, Professor Dr Shanti Balraj Baboo,

Professor Dr Hazri Jamil, Miss Hong Kim Lan, Miss Nur Hilyati Ramli, and Mr

Izzardfadzli Fadzil.
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