The purpose of the present study was to determine the perception of children by nursing undergraduate students in a Brazilian Public University. The students were asked to write about their perception of children on the first and last day of their academic activities in pediatric nursing. Using a qualitative approach, the authors analyzed the reports and identified the following thematic nuclei: "a small, fragile and innocent being", "citizen human being", "human being in the developmental phase", "a being who has fun", "the environment and child training", and "interaction of children with adults". Results show that at first the students perceived children as fragile, immature beings unprepared to face life and needing adult protection. At the end of the course, they started to see children as developing beings and as citizens with the same rights as adults.
perception of children; nursing students