Using Developmentally Appropriate Language When Interviewing Children

1. Using Developmentally Appropriate Language When Interviewing Children Chris Newlin, MS LPC Harbor House 706-235-5437 chrisnewlin@earthlink.net

2. Harbor House Mission • Provide a child-friendly environment to interview children regarding allegations of sexual and/or severe physical abuse • Coordinate the multidisciplinary investigation of these allegations • Limit any additional trauma to the child

3. Introductions • Role • DFCS • Law Enforcement • Mental Health • Other • Function • Interview • Don’t interview

4. Goal Of Training • Improve your ability to effectively communicate with children • Age at which specific details are likely to be expected • Five types of questions and expected responses • Three primary factors that may affect a child’s responses

5. “Even very young children can tell us what they know if we ask them the right questions in the right way.” • Anne Graffam Walker, Ph.D.

6. Age when specific details are likely to be communicated

8. Identify different question types • Did he have his clothes on, or off, or something else? • What happened that time in the truck? • I know someone touched you, who did that? • Did your mom hurt you? • What happened? • She licked your pee-pee, didn’t she? • Was it your mom, your step-mom, or something else?

10. Review of training • At what age can a child tell you about: • Who • What • Where • When • # of times • Circumstances

11. Review of Training • What type of question yields the most narrative information? • What type of question yields the least amount of useful information? • What may diminish a child’s responses? • What may enhance a child’s responses?

12. Finding Words Georgia • Forensic Interview training for: • DFCS Investigators • Law Enforcement Investigators • Child Abuse Prosecutors • Application for 2004 Trainings • www.gachildadvocate.org/pdf/2004fwg-app.pdf