Internship as a child

Internship as a Child is a field-based method that explores children's everyday lives through observation and participation. By engaging with children in their own environments, the method opens up new perspectives on children's experiences and ways of living.

Spend time with children in their natural surroundings and become part of their everyday lives. Enter the child's context rather than bringing the child into a design process, and approach the experience with openness and curiosity rather than predefined agendas. Use the experience early in a process to confront existing assumptions about children and to identify new opportunities grounded in children's everyday lives.

The method supports a deeper understanding of children's needs and experiences by exploring everyday life from the child's perspective. 

Approaching the experience with an open mind can help identify new design opportunities that are relevant to children's everyday lives while challenging existing assumptions.

Before entering a design process, a group of designers took part in Internships as a Child by visiting children in their homes. The children hosted the visits while the designers experienced everyday life from within the child's own context and perspective. The experience gave the designers a deeper understanding of children's needs and inspired new directions for the design process.