The Art of Moderating Kids: Nurturing The Chaos

When I was first asked to moderate kids, it felt like this whole new world I was stepping into and it was terrifying. How do I talk to them? What if they don’t understand my question? What if they get distracted?

I was in particular worried about getting to those mini-human truths as they might not have the verbal dexterity to communicate what they think, or how they feel. One kid might be super energetic while the next might be quiet, requiring a flexible approach to moderation. Kids would go on tangents, wasting precious time. In short, not only did it feel terrifying, but I was worried it would feel chaotic. And it was.

But I quickly learned that the key to those mini-human truths is in the mindset, which is to nurture and embrace the chaos. This felt important, as kids can be attuned to authority. So rather than come across as strict and inflexible, nurturing and embracing the chaos would create space for kids to feel comfortable and for me to capture authentic insights.

I came to think of moderating kids similar to a gardening process. The sowing is all about cultivating a comfortable environment, the growing is about staying adaptable to kids’ needs, and tendering is about untangling the chaos to let the insight shine.

Sowing – Cultivating a Comfortable Environment

Just like a flower, the right conditions need to be met in order for kids to blossom. In particular this is about ensuring the environment is comfortable, and that anything we introduce into their environment helps them flourish.

Removing extra chairs or tables can help create an intimate setting, disrupting any assumption that this is school, and that there are right or wrong answers. Using age-appropriate language in stimulus is equally important in allowing them to respond. Kids can also vary in how they like to communicate, so having printed stimulus, pens, paper, and emojis ensures flexibility in how they wish to respond.

Growing – Staying Adaptable  

This is where it can get messy, as you’ll never know what type of kid you’ll be speaking to – loud or quiet, high-energy or calm, focused or distracted – but this is where the real magic lies so nurturing this chaos through play, and staying adaptable is crucial. 

Play is a deep human need. We all do it in one sense or another. Because it feels so natural, it can be an effective way to reach those mini-human truths. 

For example, it’s powerful in building rapport – kids (and people in general) won’t be their natural selves or want to reveal their innermost thoughts or feelings to someone they don’t trust. But when we play with someone, we immediately feel closer to them, and open up more.

It is also useful in redirecting the conversation. If kids are struggling to communicate verbally, letting them express themselves by designing a world or creating a character related to the research topic can help. 

Play can also help regulate energy and emotions – if kids look antsy, ‘brain breaks’ – 10 seconds where they can go wild and expend all their energy so they sit down in the next 5 minutes to answer questions. If kids are quiet, something low pressure like a matching game or arranging cards can gently draw them out.

Underpinning all this is adaptability. Not one type of play suits all kids and kids have different personalities. So observation, being able to think quickly, and adjusting moderation approach in real time is important.

The emerging insights may not be clear at this point – this is just the natural outcome of a messy process, but the insight is there, in that beautiful mess.

Tending – Untangling the Chaos

By this stage we’ll have grown a forest of insights. This final gardening stage is all about untangling the roots from the leaves, the insights from the distractions, and cutting down the leaves so that bloomed flowers of insights can fully shine.

While conducting research with kids can often feel like a chaotic process, at One Minute to Midnight, we believe embracing this mess is crucial to uncovering mini-human insights. By learning into the chaos, we’ve helped some of the world’s leading brands establish authentic connections with kids. Want to do the same? Get in touch at weallarrived@oneminutetomidnight.life.

Article by Emily Hoong, Senior Research Manager

Photo sources: Unsplash