Experience CHILD at Upptech - a very successful day!

Saturday 29 February the research environment CHILD Opens in new window. invited children, youths as well as parents and staff working with children to an exciting day filled with activities at Upptech Science Center in Jönköping.

The researchers from CHILD had different stations at Upptech where they held playful activities connected to their research. There was also interesting research posters to read and during the day several short lectures took place, explaining different parts of the research conducted within CHILD.

"We are super content; it has been a great day and it was fun to try a lot of different activities. The boys think it's difficult to say what the most fun thing was, but to try a wheelchair was a favourite", says Johanna Eriksson, who works as an After-School teacher (Fritidspedagog) in Tibro municipality and visited the event with her niece and two sons, Alfred and Gustaf. 

All visitors were offered classic Swedish fika. 

"In total around 180 people participated during the day and around 30 researchers from CHILD contributed with different activities. We received a lot of positive feedback during the event and a lot of the visitors thought we should really do something like this again", says Maria Hultin, research coordinator for CHILD and one of the people who put together the activities during the day.

Within CHILD a lot of the research being done relates to inclusion, where children and families take part of every step of the process. A crucial part of inclusive research is to reach out with information to the people concerned by the research.

"By inviting children and youth, as well as parents who participate in our research, and individuals working with children, we can show who we are. We can share our conclusions with the people concerned. We often go to conferences where we present our research to other researchers, but this time the target audience was different. It is refreshing for us to use "every day-Swedish" and not technical language when talking about our research. At the same time, this gives us the chance to receive feedback and have discussions, from both the children and the adults, says Mats Granlund, research leader for CHILD.

Mats Granlund was one of the researchers who held a short lecture, with the title "What is research?”, using the book "Nasse finds a chair" written by Sven Nordqvist.

"It was interesting to try to explain what research is in a way even small children can understand. The children participated and posed very good questions", commented Mats.

Something which also got a lot of positive feedback was short lectures where children and families in connection to CHILD:s research told their stories. A mother told her story about what it is like to parent a child with a disability and 17-year-old Jaka Kosmac, who has had a brain tumor, told the visitors about his experiences The visitors could ask the lecturers questions.

During the day it was natural to take a break from all the activites and CHILD provided all visitors with much appreciated fika. The visitors were also invited to take part in future research, either as participants or advisors. Many also wanted to have information about upcoming conferences organised by CHILD.

All the activities were very well visited. A selection of pictures taken during the day can be seen below

And even more pictures from the day!