Preparing Children for Investigative Interviews: Rapport-Building, Instruction, and Evaluation

Practitioner perspectives on rapport building during child investigative interviews

“…The practitioners claimed that this is more relevant for rapport building with younger children, as older children's maturity generates an awareness of the interview's function and implications. This age difference is supported in field research (Teoh & Lamb, 2010). In accordance with practical recommendations some participants also mentioned that the rapport phase can increase children's understanding of what is expected from them during the interview.…”

“…The length of rapport building impacts upon information given with shorter rapport phases producing longer responses (Davies, Westcott, & Horan, 2000) for children aged four to six and seven to nine years (Hershkowitz, 2009). Research has also highlighted age differences with younger children benefiting from the explanation provided during the rapport phase (Teoh & Lamb, 2010). Despite these findings UK interview guidelines make no reference to possible age differences with regard to rapport approach.…”

“…The aforementioned research has neglected to consider this. Finally, whilst using open prompts, instruction and social support in the rapport phase are essential for the quality of children's information (Carter et al, 1996;Hershkowitz, 2009;Roberts et al, 2004;Teoh & Lamb, 2010), they are not necessarily a good indication of the level of or communicative impact of psychological rapport. Behaviours that are explicitly used for the purposes of rapport building should be quantified and examined during these interviews.…”

Heads You Win, Tails I Lose: The Dilemma Mandatory Reporting Poses for Teachers

“…During the first phase the goal of the interviewer is to build rapport with the child to ensure the child feels comfortable enough to give their account of the alleged event (Orbach et al, 2000;Teoh & Lamb, 2010). Additionally, the interviewer should use this time to instruct the child on what should or should not be said throughout the interview (e.g., "Please tell me everything you can remember" or "It's okay to say "I don't remember" if you don't remember because I don't want you to make anything up when you talk with me today"; Wakefield, 2006).…”

A Qualitative Examination of “Ground Rules” Implementation Practice in Investigative Interviews with Children

“…In respect to the other ground rules researchers have demonstrated some positive effects of using ground rules (Mulder & Vrij, 1996), but have also found limitations in the benefits of their implementation (Teoh & Lamb, 2010). For example, explaining to children that they should say "I don't know" or "I don't understand" does not necessarily have a positive impact on a child's conversational behaviour (Beuscher & Roebers, 2005;Blades, Waterman, & Gibson, 2003;Ellis, Powell, Thomson, & Jones, 2003;Waterman, Blades, & Spencer, 2004).…”