It was Peter Medawar who wrote, “Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in…” The world of interactive technology changes so rapidly that for most adult observers, the interactive world inhabited by children is both unknown and, once entered into, under-comprehended.

Some interaction design researchers have tried to make sense of children’s interactive technology by immersing themselves, as much as they are able, in children’s worlds. In particular, these researchers place great emphasis on involving children in the design and evaluation of interactive technologies, both to learn about the technologies and to learn about children’s interactions.

This immersion was, to some extent, a result of the considerable activity in the study of interactive technology for children that took place about 10 years ago. One product of this era was the seminal work by Hanna, Risden et al. on usability testing with children. This work was published in interactions at a time when the emphasis on the design of interactive technology for children was shifting from a concern with educational aspects to a more general interest in designing for children.