- Framing the Event
- Did I tell the child my name and what my job is - in non-technical
words?
- Did I help the child become familiar with the surroundings of the
interview?
- Did I tell the child the purpose of our talk, and why it is important,
and what will happen afterward?
- Did I give the child a chance to ask me questions about this talk?
Did I try to
establish a common vocabulary for the things we talk about? Was I listening
to the
kind of words and sentences that the child used?
- Using Clear Language
- Did I use easy words instead of hard ones? (Do I know what a "hard"
word is?)
- Did I avoid legal words and phrases?
- Did I use words that mean one thing in everyday life, but another
thing in law (like
"court"?)
- Did I assume that because a child uses a word, he or she understands
the concept it
represents?
- Was I as redundant as possible? That is, did I use specific names and
places
Instead of pronouns (like "he" and "we") and vague
referents (like "it", "that", and
"there")?
- Asking the Questions
- Did I keep my questions and sentences simple? Did I try for one main
(new)
Thought per utterance?
- Did I avoid asking "DUR-X" questions? [Questions that
begin, "Do you Remember", followed by one or more full propositions.
Ex. With propositions Underlined: Do you remember telling me
that somebody hurt you?]
- When I shifted topics, and when I moved from the present to the past
or vice
Versa, did I alert the child that I was going to do so?
- Did I give the child the necessary help in organizing his or her story?
- Did I avoid asking the child about abstract concepts, like, "What
is the difference between truth and lies?" Did I choose instead
to give the child everyday, concrete examples and let him or her demonstrate,
rather than articulate knowledge or truth and lies, right
and wrong?
- Did I use as few negatives as possible in the questions I asked?
- Listening to the Answers
- Were the child's RESPONSES to my questions, ANSWERS to my questions?
Am
I sure?
- If the child's answers were inconsistent, did I ask myself if:
- I, or someone else, had asked the same question repeatedly?
- I had changed the wording of a question I had asked before?
- I was forgetting that children can be very literal in their interpretation
of
language?
- The child's processing of language might not be as mature as mine?
- Global Checks
- Did I stay in the child's world by framing my questions in terms
of the child's
experience?
- Did I take the child's understanding of language for granted?
- Was I listening to my OWN language, my OWN questions:
- Did I ask myself before I began: Am I gathering information, or doing
therapy?
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