QUALITY CONCEPTIONS OF CHILDREN IN THE PROGRAMA MAIS INFÂNCIAeducational policies; child education; quality of educationSince the launch of the Mais Infância Program, in 2013, in the municipality of Niterói / RJ, which according to its directors has as main objective the guarantee of children's rights through “pedagogical quality, social inclusion and citizen education”, the present research aims to reflect on “How can child participation be an indicator of quality in early childhood education?”. The quality theme involves different conceptions and approaches throughout its history, both in official documents and in practice. Research on this topic is not recent, but what is important in this study is to highlight the potential of children when expressing themselves on the topic, based on the participatory dimension of these subjects for whom the policy is intended. The text is divided into three chapters. The first presents the historical-political path that constitutes the participation of children in public spaces, reflecting on the causes of their political invisibility and highlighting the child citizen, who has rights at all ages. The second chapter deals with the concept of quality through a survey of Brazilian literature about what has been produced in the academic environment on the topic of quality in early childhood education and how the concept is operated in research. In the third chapter, we bring some concerns about the field of research with children, where we present the methodology that will be used in an attempt to bring children to the center of work, the instruments that will be used to meet the data and the use of data are described. childhood studies to help elucidate children's statements. We also outline a brief description of the Mais Infância Program and the institution chosen for research