An exploration of children’s views of prosthesis: Developing techniques to explore young children’s views

2008 Conference

Our research involved children and young people who had limb deficiency/loss and
explored their views of prostheses through face-to-face interviews. We were
particularly interested in issues of appearance and choice with regards to prosthetic
limbs. Only one previous study has explored satisfaction with children’s prostheses
(e.g. Pruitt et al, 1997), and focused solely on parents’ satisfaction. This therefore
appears to be the first study directly exploring children and young people’s views.

In order to explore the views of children as young as five, we have had to develop specific interview techniques. In our talk we will present the pictures that were
created to aid our interviews with children and encourage active participation. We will
explain how they were developed, our findings, what contributions were made by the
charities involved and users of prosthetic limbs. We will also discuss how the
children engaged in the interview process and highlight the challenges encountered.

Through our presentation we hope to raise awareness of the issues related to
engaging young children in research and the importance of involving users and
charities. We also hope that others will gain from our experience and be encouraged
to develop their own research with children and young people.