Doing a psychology experiment on 9/10/11 year olds, how simple do the instructions need to be?

Question

I won't be able to speak to the children because I don't know how many there will be at a time, so as much as possible needs to be given to them in written form. I need to explain the experiment (below) and get them to write their age and gender down. I don't want to be patronizing but at the same time they need to know what it all means :)

Okay so the experiment is that they are shown a picture story and asked how they think the characters in the story are feeling and how they might feel. They will need to choose an emotion from a list and indicate their answer.

So, any ideas on how best to do this?

Answer 1

The best thing to do if you are conducting an experiment with children under 16 is:

- Obtaining the permission of the children's parents by explaing the proceedure and getting them to sign something.

- Prevent them from any physical or psychological harm

Try to keep it as simple as you can; including the layout of the questions. It's best you speak to them all in a group what it is going to be about  and be straight to the point (debreifing) rather than on paper as they won't understand!, there shouldn't be a problem with you having to do this as it prevents any misconceptions or deceptions - then hand out the papers and go ahead with the experiment! Good luck!

Answer 2

Assume your audience knows nothing and make the layout and questions as simple as possible. You will not be patronizing at all.

It sounds to me as if what you have chosen is going to be an easy task and would not have to be too detailed anyway.  

Make sure the questions are in plain english they won't know technical terms etc.   If they have to choose an emotion just tell them so.

ie :  Read the list and choose the word which best describes ........

Children are far more capable than we imagine but you have to for these purposes think they don't.