Children as informal interpreters in GP consultations: pragmatics and ideology

This paper explores the views of General Practitioners (GPs) about the appropriateness of children undertaking a task of interpretation between the GP and an adult patient in primary health care consultations. We argue that the operational constraints that GPs face because of the limited availability of professional interpreters or bi-lingual Health Advocates create situations where children are accepted in this role by GPs, subject to specific limitations and contingencies. The contingent nature of perceptions of children's acceptability as informal interpreters is shown to be related primarily to the nature of the medical consultation in terms of whether it is likely to be straightforward, complex or sensitive. At the same time GPs express an ideological opposition to the appropriateness of this task for children generally. This ideological opposition is explicitly linked by GPs to broader constructions of a 'proper' childhood, characterised as a time of innocence and freedom from worry.