Hey you - who R U callin' a designer?

This myth, promoted in the last decade of the last century, arose from the belief that the participatory design approach, initially promoted for all sorts of social and political reasons, was necessarily valuable and adaptable to child centred design.

Beginning with a look at the history of the PD method, this talk will draw on examples from the research carried out at the  Child Computer Interaction Group in UCLan and will demonstrate several holes in the suggestion that children need to be involved in the designs of their own products. The talk will leave attendees asking some political and social questions about participatory practises and they will take a way some amusing, but relevant, stories about design studies with children.