Nothingness and responsiveness – understanding (non)-verbalised experiences of children in social work and research

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This article explores how children’s opportunities to express experiences and have their needs and vulnerabilities understood depend on attentiveness and responsiveness. Drawing on examples from two qualitative studies – one on school-based divorce groups and one on residential care for children with profound intellectual disabilities – the analysis demonstrates how hegemonic ideas about children risk producing ‘nothingness’, where children’s embodied expressions and silences remain unseen. Using feminist ‘ethics of care’ and the concept of responsiveness, we argue for methodological approaches that engage with uncertainties and interpretive processes rather than assuming needs. Ethnographic examples illustrate how professional interpretations shape children’s positions for agency and participation, and how attentiveness to embodied communication can open spaces for inclusion. The article concludes that caring for children’s lived realities requires practices that listen attentively, recognise dependence, and respond through contextual understanding, thereby promoting more nuanced understandings of participation and vulnerability.