Peer-reviewed article
Passing the baton to the children: general practitioners' experiences working with pictorial support during health visits with three-year-olds within the Swedish Child Health services.
Golsäter M, Wallström J, Harder M ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study explored how Swedish general practitioners use pictorial support (visual aids) during health visits with three-year-olds to help children participate more actively. Twenty practitioners were interviewed about their experiences. Practitioners found that pictorial support helped them listen to children's views, build relationships with them, and conduct fairer assessments of health and development. The approach aligns with children's rights to participation.
Key points
- Pictorial support helps capture children's attention during health visits
- General practitioners reported it was a helpful strategy for listening to children's views and acting on them
- The support helped establish relationships with children and promote their participation
- It enabled more equitable assessment of health and development in complex encounters
- Results support compliance with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Limitations
This study captures practitioners' perspectives through interviews but does not directly measure child participation outcomes or compare outcomes with and without pictorial support. It is unclear whether practitioners' perceptions translate to actual improvements in children's engagement or health assessment accuracy.
Abstract
Background In Sweden, general practitioners encounter nearly all children in health visits within the Child Health Services, and these visits have a predetermined agenda according to a national health programme. During the visits, the general practitioner assess the child's health and development and promote their participation. Earlier research has shown that pictorial support can help capture the child's attention during health visits, thereby promoting participation. This study aimed to explore general practitioners' experiences of using pictorial support to promote three-year-olds' participation in encounters within the Swedish Child Health Services. Methods The study employed a qualitative design, and data were collected through interviews with 20 general practitioners. Deductive content analysis was used when analysing the data. Results The study conveys that general practitioners experience that the pictorial support is a helpful strategy for listening to the child's views and acting on them. This strategy helps to establish a relationship with the child, promote their participation in the encounter, and conduct an equitable assessment of their health and development in these often complex and challenging encounters. Conclusion The pictorial support used in this study was shown to be a helpful strategy for general practitioners in promoting the child's participation and facilitating an equitable assessment of their health and development. These results suggest that using pictorial support can help general practitioners consider children's views and promote their participation in accordance with the Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Use of pictorial support (visual aids) during health visits to promote child participation and elicit children's views
- Population
- Three-year-old children attending Swedish Child Health Services health visits; practitioners: 20 general practitioners
Key finding
Practitioners experienced pictorial support as a helpful strategy for listening to children's views and acting on them
M et al. · Europe PMC · 3 Sept 2026