The importance of understanding children’s lived experience

•Developmental research needs to focus more on children’s lived experience.•Sociocultural theory focuses on children’s participation in their everyday settings.•Developmental psychology has long tried to understand children’s lives in context.•Research needs to examine (not assume) generality across populations and situations.•Researchers need to study children’s development in the ecologies in which it occurs.•Children everywhere need to learn to navigate the distinct settings of their lives.