Interviewing Children: A Guide for Child Care and Forensic Practitioners / Edition 1

by Michelle Aldridge, Joanne Wood

Overview

The process of interviewing a child can be a daunting experience for both the child and the interviewer. Interviewing Children offers practical advice for understanding the linguistic abilities of children and for applying that knowledge effectively to the evidentiary interview. Drawing on real transcript data and data from language games with presumed non-abused children, the authors examine each stage of the phased interview as outlined, in the Memorandum of Good Practice. Incorporating case studies, checklists, and self-assessment sheets, Interviewing Children provides step-by-step guidelines for
* establishing an effective interview setting
* building rapport with the child
* overcoming the difficulties that can arise when eliciting free narrative accounts
* understanding which question types to use and which to avoid
* identifying and using age-appropriate language
* interviewing disabled children and those who are bilingual or use a minority language
This book s practical and jargon-free approach will appeal to anyone involved in interviewing children, including police officers, social workers, lawyers, paediatricians, and psychologists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780471982074
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/03/1999
Series:	Wiley Series in Child Care & Protection , #4
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.17(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Michelle Aldridge is the author of Interviewing Children: A Guide for Child Care and Forensic Practitioners, published by Wiley.

Joanne Wood is the author of Interviewing Children: A Guide for Child Care and Forensic Practitioners, published by Wiley.

Table of Contents

Talking and Listening to Children.
Establishing Rapport.
Free Narrative Phase: Listening to Children.
Asking Questions.
Interviewing Observed: Child Language and Development.
Interviewing Children with Special Needs.
Bibliography.
Index.

Editorial Reviews

4 Stars! from Doody

This book provides working guidelines on how to communicate appropriately with children who allegedly have been sexually abused. The authors' intent is to provide information on what linguistic abilities professionals can expect from children of varying ages and backgrounds, and how to interface this knowledge with current best practice interviewing methods. The target audience is pediatricians and child psychologists. This book is also pertinent for interview specialists in police departments, child protection service units, the sexual assault field, and emergency departments. The subject areas that were particularly well covered were how to establish rapport and the child's vocabulary. Instructions on adjusting the interviewer's words when trying to elicit the fullest account from children in a non-leading fashion were featured in a ""do/don't"" table format. The authors also did a commendable job in addressing the language skills of special needs children. This book offers practical working guidelines to a variety of professionals in the field on how to communicate effectively and appropriately with children of varying ages and backgrounds. It focuses in depth on individual aspects of language use at each of the interviewing phases. The ""how to"" of eliciting information about such things as truth versus lie, or fact from fantasy, are extremely helpful in arriving at the child's fullest account about an abusive event. Any practitioner, no matter how experienced, would improve her effectiveness as a questioner of children after reading this book.

Jaclyn M. Brandt

Reviewer: Jaclyn M. Brandt, MSW (University of Washington School of Medicine)
Description: This book provides working guidelines on how to communicate appropriately with children who allegedly have been sexually abused.
Purpose: The authors' intent is to provide information on what linguistic abilities professionals can expect from children of varying ages and backgrounds, and how to interface this knowledge with current best practice interviewing methods.
Audience: The target audience is pediatricians and child psychologists. This book is also pertinent for interview specialists in police departments, child protection service units, the sexual assault field, and emergency departments.
Features: The subject areas that were particularly well covered were how to establish rapport and the child's vocabulary. Instructions on adjusting the interviewer's words when trying to elicit the fullest account from children in a non-leading fashion were featured in a "do/don't" table format. The authors also did a commendable job in addressing the language skills of special needs children.
Assessment: This book offers practical working guidelines to a variety of professionals in the field on how to communicate effectively and appropriately with children of varying ages and backgrounds. It focuses in depth on individual aspects of language use at each of the interviewing phases. The "how to" of eliciting information about such things as truth versus lie, or fact from fantasy, are extremely helpful in arriving at the child's fullest account about an abusive event. Any practitioner, no matter how experienced, would improve her effectiveness as a questioner of children after reading this book.

Doody's Review Service