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af Afrikaanssq Albanianam Amharicar Arabichy Armenianaz Azerbaijanieu Basquebe Belarusianbn Bengalibs Bosnianbg Bulgarianca Catalanceb Cebuanony Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)co Corsicanhr Croatiancs Czechda Danishnl Dutchen Englisheo Esperantoet Estoniantl Filipinofi Finnishfr Frenchfy Frisiangl Galicianka Georgiande Germanel Greekgu Gujaratiht Haitian Creoleha Hausahaw Hawaiianiw Hebrewhi Hindihmn Hmonghu Hungarianis Icelandicig Igboid Indonesianga Irishit Italianja Japanesejw Javanesekn Kannadakk Kazakhkm Khmerko Koreanku Kurdish (Kurmanji)ky Kyrgyzlo Laola Latinlv Latvianlt Lithuanianlb Luxembourgishmk Macedonianmg Malagasyms Malayml Malayalammt Maltesemi Maorimr Marathimn Mongolianmy Myanmar (Burmese)ne Nepalino Norwegianps Pashtofa Persianpl Polishpt Portuguesepa Punjabiro Romanianru Russiansm Samoangd Scottish Gaelicsr Serbianst Sesothosn Shonasd Sindhisi Sinhalask Slovaksl Slovenianso Somalies Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilisv Swedishtg Tajikta Tamilte Teluguth Thaitr Turkishuk Ukrainianur Urduuz Uzbekvi Vietnamesecy Welshxh Xhosayi Yiddishyo Yorubazu Zulu
Knowledge Hub: Children’s Research

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Children’s Research

The ABSS Children’s Research took place at Families Growing Together (FGT), a service run by TrustLinks at a community garden in Westcliff, and The Hub at SAVS

This page is an interactive virtual translation of a print poster that was created to highlight the key insights stemming from the ABSS Childrens Research. Below are filters you can press to highlight specific themes that arose during the research and the associated tiles. When none are selected, you will see a composite picture of a large portion of the data collected. You will see children referred to by various pseudonyms – A3, B1 etc – as we anonymised all the participants involved.

Listen to all our 'Talking Tins' audio recordings for this project here

Use the filters below to explore the research based on themes.

AM was with their sibling F,who had previously used the talking tins, smiling and asked if they could use the talking tin. As the researcher was helping F, AM asked if they could hold the buttons, which they did. AM encouraged their sibling F to speak into the tin, when they did they both laughed.

Child A2 was leading the play, saying ‘lets catch a fish’ or ‘lets get a jellyfish’. There were cheers each time the group caught the animal mentioned. They made it into a game where they allocated points.They asked to go and see the chickens as this was the next part of the game. They asked the gardener where one of the chickens had gone.

#2 Then drew a snail and a river in blue across the paper. They added their sibling and themself in the sea. Both were smiling. #2 then gave their parent a cuddle while they were both sitting on the bench and said ‘I love you’ to them. They cuddled for about a minute.

B3 was applying some golden glitter to their paper plate, and after they had applied it, told their parent and us that ‘this was goldilocks with her golden hair.

A1s parent had recorded another message (which can be listened to) ‘pronto pronto’ (a common greeting when answering the phone in italian). A1 would then play the message and mimic receiving a phone call by placing the talking tin to their ear. When A1s parent said it was time to leave, A1 repeatedly said ‘no’.

A2 started dancing and as they did, two others began to join in. A2 went on to ask the other child (who they lead around the site as it was their first week) if they were having fun.

Child C approached the gardener and asked to have a turn using the hose. He smiled as he watered the plants (and the gardener!). They joked with the gardener, by playing with the flow of water a couple of times. Both he and the gardener laughed at this. Child C then took over the hose again and after a short while, he laid down the hose and said, “It’s your turn.”

K and the other child interacted with one another (they had met for the first time this week). They were picking up acorns and burying them in the sand in the wheelbarrow. They wheeled the barrow around the site, stopping to look in the greenhouse and chatting to each other.

Child BB had a dried flower stem in his hand, which he was looking at. He was trying to fold the stalk over and was interested in the dried seeds on the flower pod. He tried to explore the stalk with his mouth, before his mum took it away from him

Girl A played in the water tuff tray, scooping water and shells into a net/scoop. During this time she spoke to the FGT Staff who were stationed at the tuff tray. A boy joined the tray activity. Initially she just watched as he spoke to the FGT Staff about the type of fish in the tray, but then Girl AA joined in and then had a brief conversation with the boy.

A couple of acorns fell from the tree onto the path. Child F said in a surprised voice, “Oh! What was that!”
The gardener and another child came by and added acorns to the wheelbarrow and then picked some others from the floor and handed them to Child F for him to place in the wheelbarrow.

Child 4 has found a small purple pot and poured water from water bottle and a dead leaf. Has gone to look at the tree further away. Poured excess water onto the tree. Taking seeds and adding to the water pot, has taken back to the pea planter. Starts to prepare a shop with friends to sell the seeds.

A1s parent had recorded their voice saying ‘mama’ on one of the Talking Tins. A1 was fixated on the tin, and would repeatedly play it. Sometimes, when the recording had stopped, they would look towards their parent trying to catch their attention and repeat ‘mama mama’.

They then went on for a wander around the site, running around but stopping every now and then to look at each of the different flowers. They explored the area with pebbles, taking the pebbles and then pouring them on the other, non pebbled, side. They then sat down and started kicking their legs and hands around in it.

Two boys approached Girl AA and her friend while they were playing in the tuff tray. They played alongside each other for a minute or so and then one of the boys asked if he and his friend/brother could borrow her and her brother’s scooters. Girl AA agreed.

#3 then came out of the pram and took a small green wheelbarrow which they took down the path to the secret garden. #3 then called their parent over and they played a game of ‘Freeze’. The parent would shout ‘FREEZE’ and #3 would stop moving, smiling. Then the parent would shout ‘Unfreeze”.

B2 was sitting quietly interacting with each of the craft materials available. They picked out each of the different materials, looked at them, touched them, and then moved onto the next object to explore.

Child C was confident to ask adults if they had seen his scooter. They ran around the whole site, peering behind trees and bushes, stopping briefly at the chicken coop to look at the chickens and chat to a member of staff. Another child came up and child C explained to them that they were looking for their scooter. The other child offered to help, and they ran off together (followed by an adult).

The same child as in Twinkle also recorded this message singing the ABC song. This could show a level of comfort with the environment both in that they want to relay this information, and in getting praise and affirmation afterward.

Pronto is a common greeting when answering the phone in Italian. The child’s mother recorded the message, and the child would play it back while mimicking the action of answering the phone with the tin, exhibiting both symbolic play and roleplay.

Child A2 was swinging on branches and running around. A2 repeatedly said ‘come with me’. A2 then found an acorn while exploring the herbaceous garden.

K and the other child interacted with one another (they had met for the first time this week). They were picking up acorns and burying them in the sand in the wheelbarrow. They wheeled the barrow around the site, stopping to look in the greenhouse and chatting to each other.

This child had taken an interest in the wheelbarrow, which they would take around the site looking for acorns to place inside the wheelbarrow so ‘they could grow.

When asked what they liked best about the site, two children (one after the other) recorded that they liked coming to eat figs. This is another example of echoic behaviour that was present in Love you.

Here is the voice of two children who, when prompted by a researcher if they had anything they’d like to say, demonstrated echoic behaviour in the phrase ‘Love you’. Echoic behaviour is a form of social learning, where children learn through imitation.

While just the child and researcher were present, the child recorded these words of affection toward their mother. We would later play back this message for the mum.

Child K was focused on filling a small wheelbarrow with sand from the sandpit for about 10 minutes, occasionally interacting with their parent, who was sitting on the side of the sandpit. Child K then found an acorn on the ground and buried it in the sand in the wheelbarrow. They repeated this several times.

When asked what they liked about the session, the child specified both objects (the blanket) and spaces at the site (the sandpit).

Child A sat at the craft table with three other children, making a butterfly using card and glitter/glue. “I like the arts and crafts” (echoing what another child said). Then made a giraffe using a tube and ‘crinkly paper’. They asked an adult to sound out some words for them as they wrote them down/mark maked. They engaged in the activity for about 20 minutes.

This message was recorded by a child when asked what their favourite thing was at the site. They had just finished playing with said cars inside the Cheryl Centre at Trustlinks.

ABSS Children's Research Paper

The ABSS REI Team conducted a novel research project which explored how the ABSS programme had directly impacted the children who participated in ABSS projects and services from May – August 2024.

Read the Report here