Techniques to use with children in monitoring and evaluation

Body mapping can be used to explore changes in children’s views or experiences before and after their involvement in the programme. This tool is particularly useful for measuring outcomes when baseline information has been collected at the start of the programme. If baseline information was not collected, children can still be encouraged to reflect on changes arising from their participation ‘before and after’ the programme was implemented.

60–90 minutes

Resources

Sheets of A3 paper with an outline of a body drawn on them – one sheet for each child, one sheet of flipchart paper with an outline of a body drawn on it, different coloured pens and crayons, tape and Post-it notes.

What to do

Introduce the ‘before and after’ body mapping exercise that will enable girls and boys, individually and collectively, to explore changes in children’s lives or in children’s knowledge, behaviour or attitudes that are an outcome of their participation. These changes may be positive or negative, expected or unexpected.

Ask for a volunteer to lie down on the sheets so that the shape of their body may be drawn around. Draw around their body shape with chalk or (non-permanent!) pens.

Draw a vertical line down the middle of the body. Explain that this child is a girl or boy from their community. The left-hand side represents the child BEFORE their participation in the programme and the right-hand side represents the child AFTER their participation (now).

Explain that girls and boys will initially have the chance to think about and to illustrate changes arising from their participation in their individual body maps; after, they will have the chance to transfer their findings onto the big ‘body map’ to share key findings and experiences.

Give every child an A3 sheet of paper with the shape of a child’s body on it. The body is similarly divided by a vertical line down the middle. The left-hand side represents the child BEFORE their active participation in the programme and the right-hand side represents the child AFTER their participation (now).

Encourage each child to think about changes arising from their participation. Again, remind them that they can think about and record positive or negative changes. You can encourage them to think about the body parts to explore and to record before/after changes on Post-it notes. For example:

• The head: Are there any changes in their knowledge? Or what they think about/worry about/feel happy about? Are there any changes in the way adults think about children?
• The eyes: Are there any changes in the way they see themselves/their family/their community/their school? Are there any changes in the way adults see children?
• The ears: Are there any changes in how they are listened to? Are there any changes in how they listen to others? Or what they hear?
• The mouth: Are there any changes in the way they speak? The way they communicate with their peers, their parents, their teachers or others? Are there any changes in the way adults speak to them?
• The shoulders: Are there any changes in the responsibilities taken on by girls or boys?
• The heart: Are there any changes in the way they feel about themselves? Are there any changes in their attitudes to others? Are there any changes in the way adults or other children feel about them? Or others’ attitudes to them?
• The stomach: Are there any changes in their stomach? In what they eat?
• The hands and arms: Are there any changes in what activities they do? How they use their hands or arms? Are there any changes in the way adults treat them?
• The feet and legs: Are there any changes in where they go? What they do with their legs and feet?
• Think about and draw any other changes.

Give children time to draw or record these changes through words or images on Post-it notes on their body map.

After 20–25 minutes, encourage children to sit around the ‘big body map’ so they can share their individual findings and transfer them onto the ‘big body map’.

For each body part, encourage the children to share some of the changes they have recorded, if they feel safe and comfortable to share.

Encourage children to share expected and unexpected changes, positive and negative.

Ensure that all the children’s views are recorded in detail (but anonymously) by one of the evaluation team members.