“Ears to Listen So I Can Hear”: A Holistic Self-Report Tool of Children’s Listening at Preschool

Although research conducted with young children increasingly incorporates methodologies where children have input, self-reports are rarely used with children under six years. This is problematic given that children’s rights to express their expertise and opinions are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This chapter draws on a study that developed and implemented a holistic self-report tool that aimed to enable children’s active participation in research focused on their experiences of hearing and listening at preschool. The self-report tool was completed by 69 children aged 3–5 years. Data from two children are presented as vignettes. Analysis of these vignettes indicates that children can effectively report on their experiences of hearing and listening using the self-report tool. The multiple opportunities for communicating experiences about hearing and listening are proposed as the key features that made this an effective tool. The potential for the self-report tool to inform research and direct work with children in various fields, in Australia and internationally, is discussed.