Using @ViewChild decorator enables direct access to child components and DOM elements from parent components for programmatic control and method invocation. As the creator of CoreUI, a widely used open-source UI library, I’ve implemented @ViewChild in countless Angular components for modal controls, form validation, and dynamic content management. From my expertise, the most effective approach is using @ViewChild with template reference variables for clean component interaction. This method provides direct access to child component properties and methods without complex event handling.