Narratives of children who hear voices: nature, characteristics and stories

to understand narratives of children who hear voices, through their nature, characteristics and stories.

a narrative and qualitative study. Benjamin's concepts of narrative and memory were used to analyze the contribution of four children who self-declared as voice hearers.

from narratives, three categories emerged: 1) Children's multisensory experience: nature of experiences (all had voices, not all had visions or other sensations); 2) Hearing voices: an unusual beginning (narratives covered the month of beginning, time of day and activities carried out at the time); and 3) Voice characteristics: who are they? (the gender, age range, tone of voice, frequency and content of voices/visions were described).

it was observed, from narratives, that children experience voices, visions and sensations in a unique, personal and non-transferable manner, and the construction of dialogue in the group promoted acceptance and even a positive coexistence with the phenomenon.