The participation of children and it´s development is a current subject today in Finnish early childhood education. The new Early Education Law (36/1973) and the Basics of the Early Childhood Education (2016) requires educators, teams and units in early childhood education to develop children’s participation and find ways to implement it in the early childhood education and culture.

The thesis is a development work resulting in a guidebook for the workers, teams and centres in early childhood education. The thesis partner was early childhood education services in Hyvinkää represented by pedagogical team and Kenttäkatu kindergarten.

The aim of this thesis was to create a practical guidebook for the educators, teams and centres in early childhood education. The purpose of the guidebook was to give knowledge of children´s participation in early childhood education and how to implement and develop it in practice. This guide was planned to meet early childhood education’s needs in Hyvinkää.

As development work the theoretical part of the thesis consisted of already existing knowledge, knowledge produced from development work and knowledge based on educators experimental knowledge. This thesis also consists of theory about developing work and the participation of children in the early childhood education. These themes are approached both from the social and local aspect. The thesis also consists of developing project’s process, methods and product.

The research was executed as a qualitative research, using two thematic group interviews as the research method. The interviews were carried out with four educator teams from Kenttäkatu kindergarten. The aim of the research was to point out the educators views about children´s participation in early childhood education. Other methods of development were dialogue discussions with pedagogical team and the development diary.

Feedback from the guidebook was gathered from the co-partners during the developing work and at the end of it. The guidebook will remain in early childhood centers as a tool to develop children’s participation. Co-partners considered the guidebook to be needed and a valuable tool on the way to building overall children´s participation in the field of early childhood education.