This paper synthesizes explorations from two research projects with 3- and 4-year-olds in the areas of instrumental music-making and telephone discourse, sharing an approach to research with young children in which the adult participates in the child's activity and seeks to share the initiative. The interpretive, participatory approaches used are differentiated from data collection approaches that strive toward marking distance and detachment or obscure differences between the researcher and the child. Consequent to opening up spaces for dialogue in the research process are implications for the organization and analysis of data. Findings become related to children's evidenced processes of meaning-making rather than deficit-based measurements of competence or incompetence. The paper ends by sharing some specific structures for participatory research for children that may expose rather than conceal the challenging dilemmas posed by power differentials between adult and very young research participants. (Contains 39 references.) (Author/KB)