Interviewing the Preschool Child

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Interviewing 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

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• 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)

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Language 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

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Language 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

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Social 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)

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Genital/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

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Assessing 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.

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As 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)

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Assessing 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)

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Memory

• 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.

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Memory

• 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.

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Suggestibility 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

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Disclosure 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

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Types 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)

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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

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Barriers 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

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Before 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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Interview 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

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During 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

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Drawings

• 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

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Sensory 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

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Developmental 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

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Language 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?

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Language 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

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Guidelines for Age-Appropriate Questions
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REFERENCES

• 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.