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It is imperative that children's participatory rights are supported and therefore it is incumbent upon adults genuinely to listen to them and take their views seriously. However, 28 years into a democratic South Africa and children's participatory rights are not fully actualised and implementation seems to be problematic in early childhood education. The purpose of this article was to explore 13 final-year student teachers' understandings about children's participatory rights in the Reception Year (Grade R) and how these understandings influence their practice using Lundy's model of participation and Honneth's theory of recognition. A qualitative approach was applied, and data was collected through a focus group interview that was undertaken online. The data revealed that student teachers had a limited understanding of children's participatory rights but aligned more towards children's protection rights. Additionally, whilst the participants related the concepts of Lundy's model of participation to mainly pedagogical scenarios that lacked children's genuine participation, the participants gave children the recognition to building their self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]