Designing technology for and with children is the main focus of the Child–Computer Interaction (CCI) community. The questions posed are; how can we better understand children's needs? and how can we design for and with them? The annual Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference, as the premier event in CCI, offers a channel for presenting and discussing state of the art research endeavors and exhibiting the most recent developments in CCI. Drawing from the highest peer-reviewed papers from IDC’18, this special issue of the International Journal of Child–Computer Interaction presents advancements from five selected contributions. This editorial introduction further draws attention to the great potential and need for furthering CCI research to understand and improve the design, development, and use, of interactive technologies for children.