Title: Interviewing the Preschool Child
1Interviewing the Preschool Child
- Improving Investigations and Prosecution of
Child Abuse - Virginia Beach, Virginia
- October 21, 2009
- Marcella Rustioni, LCSW Kelly Bober,
BA - Arlington County CAC
Winchester-Frederick CAC - Forensic Interviewer Director
-
2- Ages 3 to 6
- 3 and 4
- 5 and 6
- Language skills
- Cognitive development
- Social and Emotional development
- Genital/Sexual development
- Memory
- Suggestibility
- Disclosure process
- An act does not cease to be an act if the words
used to describe it are not mutually understood
nor does it become a lie. The challenge is to
recognize the limitations of word meaning for
children. And to craft questions that get at
those limitations. (Graffam-Walker, 1994) - The problem with communication ... is the
illusion that it has been accomplished. (George
Bernard Shaw)
3Language and Cognition (3 and 4)
- Still learning prepositions
- Working on colors and counting
- Superficial and inaccurate cause and effect link
- Cannot shift perspective
- Fantasy and reality are blurred mixes wishful
thinking with facts - Very egocentric
- Concrete and literal thinkers
- May say something even if they do not know what
it means - Practicing rote memory (ABCs)
- Idea of right and wrong or good or bad depends on
consequences not intentions - May not fully grasp concept of truth versus lie
4Language and Cognition (3 and 4)
- May not always know where their information comes
from (source monitoring) - Starting to learn to classify information
- Time is NOT well understood
- Does not fully understand kinship relationships
- Can remember events for years
- Use drawings- takes time and effort
- Expect their communication to be disorganized
- Communicate using language, emotions, behaviors
(may not match) - Representational shift (symbolic representation
of self) emerges between age 3 and 4
5Social and Emotional (3 and 4)
- Responds well to and seeks praise encouragement
- All or nothing feelings
- Sees family as central
- Identifies with parents and older kids likes to
imitate them - Tends to be protective of parents
- Growing social network, more relationships
- Wants to be independent thinks they are more
capable than they really are - Gender identity is becoming more important but is
not necessarily permanent - More suggestible than other people
- Thinks that adult know everything
- It is normal to be active, fidgety, distractible,
silly - Eye contact may be inconsistent (cultural norms)
6Genital/Sexual (3 and 4)
- Touches/rubs own genitals
- Watches/asks about body functions
- Still touches breasts
- Waver between being uninhibited and inhibited
- Will mimic caretakers- playing house, playing
doctor - Kiss and hold hands with adults and peers
- Private parts are both funny and serious
- Modesty is starting to development
7Assessing Allegations of Sexual Abuse in
Preschool ChildrenUnderstanding Small Voices
(Sandra Hewitt, 1999)
- Stage 2 Interview
- These young children can participate in abuse
assessment, but this is a period of transitioning
skills. The emergence of several new skills
across this time requires that the assessor
carefully evaluate the current status of these
childrens capabilities to ensure that the best
match between interview style and the skills of
the child is offered.
8As kids get older . 5 and 6
- Still egocentric
- Still make erroneous causal links
- Still struggle with the concept of time and space
- Family is still central
- Still mimic older kids and adults
- All or nothing thinking still persists
- --------------------------------------------------
----- - Larger vocabulary (by age 6, average child has a
working vocabulary of 8,000 to 14,000 words) - Understand truth and lie better
- Source monitoring improves
- Representational shift is firmly in place
- Better at classifying things (older, younger)
- Growing social network
- Modesty and shame are very real feelings
- Gender identity is permanent
- More symbolic play
- Are protective of parents
- Better understanding of time (understand
yesterday, tomorrow, sometimes, never,
always)
9Assessing Allegations of Sexual Abuse in
Preschool ChildrenUnderstanding Small Voices
(Sandra Hewitt, 1999)
- Stage 3 Interview
- Most of these children are able to respond to
standardized interview formats however, there
are still important interview abilities they do
not possess. (e.g. time)
10Memory
- There is some evidence that children as young as
33 hours old can recognize auditory stimuli
presented during the last trimester of pregnancy. - A childs memory is affected by 3 factors
- the status of the child
- the nature of the interviewing
- the nature of the material to be remembered
- Trauma affects memory the best understanding of
the effects of trauma on a child seems to be
related to the childs judgment of the meaning of
the event - Repeated meaningful incidences can increase
memory retrieval, sometimes - Even very young children can store memories of
early experiences - Many young children can accurately retrieve early
memories over time - The way an event is processed, understood, and
perceived affects memory.
11Memory
- Young kids do not spontaneously give detailed and
complete accounts of their experiences
preschoolers especially have underdeveloped free
recall and need retrieval cues - Young children need help from interviewers to
retrieve memories through interviewer
organization, scaffolding or cuing. - Young children give less spontaneous information
than older children. - Children who come from a secure, organized, and
nurturing home and who have experienced one
incident of abuse often present their abuse with
clarity and specifics - Some research shows that simply asking the child
to remember something increased the actual
memory the demand increased the memory - Memory of an event tends to fade with time in
both children and adults.
12Suggestibility the degree to which ones
memory or recounting of an event is influenced by
suggested information or misinformation or the
extent to which individuals come to accept and
subsequently incorporate post-event information
into their memory recollections
- Young childrens words alone may not be enough to
sustain the weight of the full allegations
credibility - Young children ARE credible reporters in the
absence of leading and suggestive questions - Preschool age children tend to be more vulnerable
to suggestion than school age kids or adults - Childrens resistance to suggestibility matures
with age and cognitive maturation - It is possible for young children to rewrite an
ending to the abuse - Children tend to be more suggestible if they
perceive the interviewer to be authoritarian,
unfriendly, or intimidating. - Children are more likely to be mislead when they
do not understand what is expected of them - Children are more likely to be suggestible if
they think the interviewer knows about the event
in question - Children can exaggerate for attention and
approval
13Disclosure how do children tell?
- No Disclosure
- No abuse
- Pre-disclosure
- Tentative/Ambiguous Disclosure
- Denial
- Avoidant
- vague
- Active Disclosure
- Purposeful
- Accidental
- Recanting/Retraction
- Internal and external pressure
- Children 4 and under may not see abuse as
shameful they are not as good about keeping
secrets - Children 5 and older are more prone to feelings
of shame, but are less suggestible than younger
children
14Types of Disclosure
- Accidental
- revealed by chance
- usually younger children
- often in the context of care routines
- 74 of cases
- Impetus
- exposure to perpetrator
- sexual behaviors
- inappropriate statement
- child confided in peer who told
- journal/diary entry found
- injury discovered
- other evidence found (ex photos, gifts)
15 Barriers to Disclosure
- Shame
- Modesty
- Non-supportive caretakers
- Battered mothers/DV in the home
- Pressure by family members
- Fear of negative consequences
- Fear/anxiety during interview
- Developmental delays
- Severe trauma
- Cognitive delays
16Barriers and Interview Tips
- Modest/Shy Trauma
- Slow down the pace Breaks/Stop
- Drawings Water
- Sit catty corner Be matter of fact
- Direct questions Direct questions
- Reassurance
Drawings - Pass markers/crayons back and forth
- Active
- Medication?
- Draw something for child and redirect them to
color it in - Increase the pace
-
17Before the interview
- Be prepared (know what your jurisdiction
requires) - Be consistent (within jurisdictions)
- Know about child development, memory,
suggestibility - Rely on your team
- Have your Toolbox
- muliticultural colored pencils, crayons, markers
(avoid pencils) - blank paper or easel
- anatomical drawings
- anatomically detailed drawings (Teach-a-Bodies)
- play dough / therapuddy
- Create a child-friendly space
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21Interview Instructions
- Explain your role
- Let the child know s/he can correct you
- There are no right or wrong answers
- Let the child know you need for them to teach you
- It is ok to interrupt
- It is ok to take a break
- It is ok to say they do not know the answer (I
dont know vs. I dont want to talk about it) - If you ask the same question more than once it
does not mean you want them to change their
answer. It means you want to understand them
better. - Test out hypotheses
22During the interview.
- Do Do not
- Keep it simple Make assumptions
- Be patient Double up on questions
- Be ok with pauses Not ask for permission
- Listen carefully Apologize for your drawings
- Pay attention to body language Talk about
pretend/make-believe - Prompt/Redirect Say special, story,
guess, - Use drawings pretend
- Let kids know they are not in trouble with
you Use pronouns - Focus on one thing at a time Do therapy
- Ask sensory questions Touch the child
- Ask how kids know React
- Fill in the blanks Be afraid to end a sentence
with - Repeat what child said (exception) a
preposition - Assess developmental levels Use double
negatives
23Drawings
- Establish comfort
- Takes away intensity
- Enhances recollections of details
- Helps prod memory
- Refocuses child
- Provides evidentiary information
- Slows things down
-
- Face
- Family
- House
- Pets
- Crime scene
24Sensory Questions
- What does that feel like, taste like, look like,
smell? - What did you see?
- What did you hear?
- I want to know what you saw with your own eyes,
heard with your ears and felt with your own skin
25Developmental Assessment
- Starts in the rapport building phase
-
- Assess understanding of prepositions
- inside, outside, up, down, in
out, before, after - Assess understanding of time
- avoid asking how long ago?
- ask one time or more than one time two
times or more than two times - Assess understanding of truth versus lie
26Language tips (Anne Graffam Walker, Handbook on
Questioning Children, 1994)
- ahead of and behind are used to talk about
space and time consider in front of and in
back of - Use versions of some rather than any
- Use at the same time instead of while
- Be careful about do you remember. Remember
implies there was a string of events. Do you
remember telling your teacher that Sam hit you.
Break it down. - Use the active voice. Did John hit you versus
Were you hit by John? (passive voice) - Avoid tag questions Its nice outside isnt
it?
27Language tips (Anne Graffam Walker, Handbook on
Questioning Children, 1994)
- When kids repeat what you say do not treat this
as an affirmation they could be confused or
simply practicing something new - Place the main question before the qualifier
What did you do when he hit you rather than
When he hit you, what did you do? - Avoid convert verbs into nouns Tell me about
how he hit you rather than Tell me about the
hitting? - Be aware of cultural norms that impact language
and communication
28Guidelines for Age-Appropriate Questions
29REFERENCES
- Erickson, Claire and Erickson, Mary. A Monster
is Bigger then 9. The Green Tiger Press San
Diego, CA, 1988. - Graffam-Walker, Anne (1994). Handbook on
Questioning Children A Linguistic Perspective.
ABA Center on Children and the Law. - Hewitt, Sandra (1999). Assessing Allegations of
Sexual Abuse in Preschool Children Understanding
Small Voices. Sage Publications. - Poole, Debra A. and Lamb, . Investigative
Interviews of Children A Guide for Helping
Professionals, American Psychological
Association, Third Printing 2002. - Sorenson, T., Snow, B. (1991). How children
tell The process of disclosure in child sexual
abuse. Child Welfare, 70 (1), 3-15. - Steinmetz, Melissa McDermott. (1997).
Interviewing for Child Sexual Abuse Strategies
for balancing Forensic and Therapeutic Factors.
Jalice Publishers.