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their thoughts and feelings in a number of expressive
and verbal ways, we were interested in incorporating
ideas held by play therapy practitioners who are
grounded in ways to be with children that allow the
child to guide and direct much of what he/she would
like to express (Allan, 1977;; Kottman 2003; Kottman,
2009; Landreth, 2002; Oaklander, 1988; Yasenik &
Gardner, 2012). Of interest was how could we hear
from children and youth and offer them the greatest
space to express what they wanted to and then enter
their play or art products to seek to understand
more? What if we were able to provide a space that
was not driven by outside agendas? What would we
learn?

To further this way of thinking, Lundy, McEvoy and
Byrne (2011) addressed a rights-based approach to
the engagement of very young children as co-
researchers across the research process. They
advocate inviting children in at the outset of a
process to help develop questions and methods (and
interpretation of data) that feel more authentic and
meaningful to them. This way of viewing children
places Lundy et al. in line with following a United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
involvement. This type of thinking and inclusion
underlies the Meeting with Children Approach as the
philosophy is to be led by the child rather than to
lead the child to an adult expected outcome.

Through multiple influences, Meeting with Children
has adopted a strong belief in the need to make use
of expressive activities as a way of entering into