L. Dennison Reed, Psy.D. NSU - Center for Psychological Studies Child Sexual Abuse: Assessment

1. Linguistic Considerations When Questioning Children About Sexual Abuse L. Dennison Reed, Psy.D. NSU - Center for Psychological Studies Child Sexual Abuse: Assessment

2. Children’s Language Development • Children say their first word at around 10 months • At 18 months, they can put together a two-word sentence

3. By the age of 6, they can have a vocabulary of 7,000 words!

4. MISUNDERSTANDINGS ARE COMMON WHEN INTERVIEWING YOUNG CHILDREN • “I rode on an alligator today” (4-year-old girl”) • Daddy put his pee-pee on my pee-pee (4-year-old girl) • “Daddy put his penis in my mouth” (3½ year-old boy)

5. Why the Misunderstandings? • Complexity is a factor: • Adult’s vocabulary may be too advanced for the child, e.g., “identify” “What does ‘truth’ mean”? • Too many ideas at once, e.g., several ideas in a single sentence; two or more questions asked all at once • Structure, i.e., compound sentences • Children and adults have different definitions for the same terms

6. Children sometimes have a more ‘restricted’ definition of terms than adults do: A.G. Walker, 1998 Girl, 5 years old: • Did he have on any clothes? • No, he had on a bathing suit. Better Question (suggested by Tom Lyon): Q. Where were your clothes? A. Around my ankles

7. CHILDREN CAN BE QUITE LITERAL IN INTERPRETING QUESTIONS After the child admitted that the perpetrator made him fellate the perpetrator on multiple occasion, the following exchange took place: Q. Did you put your mouth on his pee-pee one time or more than one time?” A. I never did that. Child’s perspective: He put his pee-pee in my mouth. I didn’t put my mouth on his pee-pee

8. AVOID ASKING QUESTIONS THAT IMPLY THAT THE CHILD WAS THE INITIATOR Q. “Did you suck his pee-pee one time or more than one time?” Child’s perspective: He told me to suck his pee-pee. It wasn’t my idea! • Better to ask: “Did he have you suck his pee-pee one time or more than one time?”

9. Children sometimes have a more ‘expansive’ definition of terms than adults do • “Private parts” can mean many different things—especially to preschoolers • Genitals • Buttocks • Stomach • Back • Arm pit!

10. Preschoolers often fail to appreciate the true meaning and significance of the words they use and the words they hear • 4 year-old boy at Bible class learning about Jesus . . . “Jesus Christ. That’s my name, too!” Mother yelling at son before Bible class . . . “Jesus Christ! How many times have I told you to stop pulling that poor dog’s tail!!”

11. Terms & Concepts that Can Confuse Children

12. TERMS RELATING TO GENITALS AND ANUS • Children often have idiosyncratic terms for the genitals/anus. • Younger children are often confused by the term “private parts” and may not relate these to the genitals at all. Strategies: • Clarify what the child is referring to. Have child identify body parts on dolls, drawings, self • Use the child’s terminology

13. What’s wrong with this picture? • Child claims that the perpetrator put his penis inside her vagina earlier today, but there is no medical evidence of penetration

14. TERMS RELATING TO PENETRATION(“In” and “On”) • These terms are used arbitrarily and interchangeably in everyday speech: • Did you ride “on” the bus or “in” your car? • He poked me “in” the eye, then he punched me “in” the stomach! • Painful pressure against the opening of the vagina or anus may feel like penetration (“in”) even when there was little or no penetration.

15. Child previously disclosed that the perpetrator performed cunnilingus (oral sex) on her and had her masturbate him • Did he ever touch your pee-pee? A. No, he never did.

16. TERMS RELATING TO TOUCHING“Did he ever touch your pee-pee?” • Children who have been penetrated by a penis or have been made to perform oral sex will often deny that they were “touched” because hands weren’t involved. • Many children think of touching as something that is only done with the hands.

17. Assume that this 5 year old’s ‘Uncle Harry’ fondled her vagina and had her fondle his penis • Do you know about good touches and bad touches? • Yes. Q. Did Uncle Harry ever give you a ‘bad’ touch? • He spanked me one time when I was bad. Q. Did he ever give you any other bad touches? A. No. That was the only time. Uncle Harry is nice to me when I be good.

18. TERMS RELATING TO “Good Touch” - “Bad Touch” • Many kids only associate “bad” touches with painfultouches. Oftentimes, sexual abuse is notpainful. • For naïve kids who do not even realize they have been abused, labeling such touches as “bad” touches can lead to false denials or recantation. They don’t want to admit that they or someone they love engaged in something “bad.”

19. Assume that the father of this 6 year old boy performed fellatio on the boy (sucked his penis) on multiple occasions Q. How high can you count? • Up to 100 • Let me hear you count to 25. A. [Child proceeds to count to 25 without mistakes] Q. How many times did your Daddy suck your penis? A. Uh . . . 10 times.

20. TERMS RELATING TO FREQUENCY“How many times did that happen?” • Children who can recite numbers in sequence are often unable to report the number of times they were abused if it occurred on several occasions. Even adults would have difficulty with this. • DON’T ask: “How many times?” (Kids will guess!) • DO ask: “Did that happen one time or more than one time?”

21. TERMS RELATING TO THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS • When the abuse happened several times, don’t expect kids to be able to specify what happened which time:“What happened the second time, the third time, the fourth time . . .”

22. Questioning of a 4 year-old who was sexually abused by her day care teacher, “Ms. Tina.” The child hasn’t seen Ms. Tina for a week Q. You told me that Ms. Tina had you rub her pooty (vagina). When did she have you rub her pooty? • Yesterday • Well, she couldn’t have rubbed your pooty yesterday because you haven’t seen her for a week. • Do you remember what day that happened? Q. Monday

23. TIME FRAMES“When did it happen?” • Children generally do not fully master the calendar until they are about 11-12 years old. • Days of the week, months, the “date” • For many 3- and 4-year-olds “yesterday” means any day other than ‘today’

24. TERMS RELATING TO THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS(Preschoolers) • Preschoolers sometimes have difficulty with the term “before.” • More often, they understand the terms “after” “next” and “first” • They also tend to jump over significant events Strategies for preschoolers: Ask: What happened first? What happened right after that?

25. TIME FRAMESPairing Events • Children are often better a pairing events than providing specific time frames • “It happened when we went to Disney World.” • “It happened when Mommy went to pick up grandma from the airport”

26. When multiple incidents are suggested • Children are usually better able to remember the most recent incident (and sometimes the ‘first’ incident). • If a child says, “It happened lots of times,” consider asking • Which time do you remember best?

27. Statement of a 6 year old.What’s wrong with this picture? • Billy made me suck his pee-pee when me and my brother were in the play room. Q What did Billy’s pee-pee look like? A. It had like cream in it. And the cream squirted out. Q. Was your brother there when that happened? A. No. He was downstairs in the playroom.

28. "Who's on First?" • Young children have difficulty recognizing the topic the interviewer is inquiring about (i.e., the “target event”) • Young children also have difficulty tracking the flow of the conversation—especially when several events/people are being discussed • Questions containing non-specific references (pronouns)exacerbate these problems • “Was your brother there when “that” happened? {When ‘what’ happened? Sucking Billy’s pee-pee or when cream squirted out?}

29. BE “PAINFULLY REDUNDANT” WHEN QUESTIONING CHILDREN • DON’T ASSUME that the child knows what you are referring to! • REPEAT the specific names of the people, activities, places, and things that you are inquiring about. • Where were you when Billy made you suck his pee-pee?“In the playroom” • Where were you when the cream squirted out of Billy’s pee-pee?“I was upstairs in the bedroom with Billy and he was rubbing his pee-pee, and then the cream came out. My brother was downstairs in the playroom.”

30. "Now where was I?" • Preschoolers have difficulty remaining on a topic, i.e., “topic drift” • They tend to drift to seemingly unrelated topics and this may make them appear unresponsive to the question and incompetent as witnesses.

31. Helping Kids Stay on Track • Redirect the child when he/she is ‘drifting’ • You said that Daddy came into your bedroom last night and took off his pajamas. What happened next?

32. Helping Kids Stay On Track • Use transitional prompts when you change topics • “Okay. Now we’re going to talk about …”

33. Enhancing Mutual Understanding During Forensic Interviews • Use common and simple words. • Keep questions short. One idea at a time. • Ask one question at a time and give the child time to process the information. • Use proper names and clear references • Monitor the child’s responses for understanding and test your assumptions.