Introduction: To facilitate child´s rights in healthcare situations, professionals need to be aware of, and use, their child perspective and the child´s perspective in the situation. A child´s rights approach requires that the caring culture and ways of working are adapted to the interactive communication tool, based on children´s perceptions of being in healthcare situations, prerequisites of children.
Aim: To develop an interactive communication tool, based on children´s perceptions of being in healthcare situations, meant to facilitate children´s participation and understanding in these specific situations.
Method: Children, 3-5 years, in a preschool, a primary health care clinic and a pediatric outpatient unit at a hospital were encountered in interviews which focused the children´s perceptions of being in healthcare situations. Non-verbal perceptions were elicited through drawings. These perceptions were used in the development of the communication tool. In iterative phases the children, as co-designers, tested and evaluated evolving prototypes of the tool. Their feedback were analyzed and used in the ongoing development and improvement of the prototype.
Result: an iterative, co-designing process of the interactive communication tool transformed children´s verbal and non-verbal perceptions of being in a healthcare situation into an age appropriate and likeable application regarding content, usability and graphic design.
Conclusion: an interactive communication tool involving visual guidance of healthcare situations facilitates younger children to elicit their perspective in these situations. Children´s participation in healthcare situations is enabled by professionals who use the child´s perspective, expressed with help of the communication tool, combined with their verbal guidance.