7.1 Interviewing Children

Child's Perspective: Crucial to understand; children often perceive adults as enormous (trousers/skirts, not faces).
Reliability: Key concern is the reliability of young children's answers.
Language: Essential to use appropriate language for effective communication.

Putting Yourself at the Child's Level:
- Physically & Seating: Crucial to be at child's physical level (e.g., sit in child's chair for comfort).
- Attire: Avoid restrictive clothing (e.g., tight skirts) for ease of movement.
Arranging the Physical Conditions:
- Privacy & Comfort: Ensure quiet, private, comfortable setting with no interruptions.
- Decorations: Minimize distractions; avoid busy décor, bright colors are fine.
- Furniture: Child-suitable (strong, low); table should be appropriate height for materials, sturdy, safe, non-toxic.
- Equipment: Store out of sight when not in use.

Activities: Often used as adjuncts (e.g., research testing, clinical interviews, projective tests with pictures/dolls).
Purpose: Activities anchor questioning, integral to interview, not just distractions.
Examples: Videos, cartoons, plasticine, crayons, drawing paper.
Rapport: Maintain rapport; don't abruptly remove activities when questioning starts.

Speech Style: Adults adapt speech for children (Brown, 1973), from baby talk to simplified vocabulary/syntax.
Grammar: By 5 years, basic grammar is typically acquired.
Appropriate Language:
- Clear, plain, avoiding long/complex sentences.
- Ask one simple question at a time; avoid rhetorical questions.
- Check word meanings.
- Adapt to individual language skills; use introductory stages to gauge level.

Concerns: Reliability vs. adults, suggestibility by leading questions/power dynamics.
Cognitive Development: Less cognitive development can lead to errors, but not always.
Age Influence: Age is not the greatest factor in changing testimony due to leading questions (Dent, 1992).
Long-Term Memory: Young children remember past experiences well, especially with prior knowledge (Gordon, Baker-Ward, & Ornstein, 2001).
Accuracy: Children over 3 provide accurate accounts if interviewed nonsuggestively (Gordon, Baker-Ward, & Ornstein, 2001).
Resistance: Younger children's naivete can help them resist influence more than adults (who are more socially aware).
Reliability: Young children's memory can be highly reliable, even against leading questions.

Benefit: Imagination is valuable, especially for story-based responses to activities.
Misinterpretation: Don't mistake imagination for memory error or failure.
Interviewer Skill: Differentiate experience from fantasy; gently guide back to interview theme without criticizing creativity.

Contentious: Giving rewards is debated.
Contingency: Avoid making cooperation dependent on a reward – it can backfire.
Purpose: If a reward is given, it should be given as an acknowledgment of their effort, not as a bribe for participation.