Twenty-seven 6- to 15-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 32 typically developing (TD) children were questioned about their participation in a set of activities after a 2-week delay and again after a 2-month delay using a best practice interview protocol. Interviews were coded for completeness with respect to the gist of the…

Twenty-seven autistic children and 32 typically developing (TD) peers were questioned about an experienced event after a two-week delay and again after a two-month delay, using the Revised National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol. Recall prompts elicited more detailed and more accurate…

Children often answer questions when they do not have the requisite knowledge or when they do not understand them. We examined whether "ground rules" instruction--to say "I don't know," to tell the truth, and to correct the interviewer when necessary--assisted children in applying those rules during an interview about a past…

In this brief review, we reflect upon the key contributions of research examining children's eyewitness testimony. Children's testimonial ability became a focus of interest for researchers about 40 years ago in the wake of several high-profile child abuse cases that prompted questions about children's reliability in the face of problematic…

Children must describe maltreatment coherently for their testimony to be influential in court. We know little about how well children with intellectual disabilities (CWID) describe their experiences relative to typically developing (TD) children, despite CWID's vulnerability to maltreatment. We investigated children's reports of an experienced…

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 (S28) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act and the introduction of mandatory ground rules hearings reduced the complexity of the questions English lawyers asked when examining child witnesses. This study compared cases with (n = 43) and without (n = 43) the S28 special measures…

The present study explored the effects of different types of narrative practices on the accuracy and abundance of information elicited from children and the disclosure of secrets. Seventy-one children ages 3-6 years experienced a scripted encounter with a photographer; then they were interviewed about the event after participating in one of four…

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) improved lawyers' questioning strategies when examining child witnesses in England. The government's Section 28 pilot study involved judges holding Ground Rules Hearings, during which restrictions and limitations were placed on the…

Objective: To examine the ability of children with intellectual disabilities to give reliable accounts of personally experienced events, considering the effects of delay, severity of disability, and the types of interview prompt used. Method: In a between-subjects design, we compared children with intellectual disabilities (7-12 years) that fell…

Objectives: To examine the effects of different forms of family violence at two developmental stages by assessing a sample of 110 Israeli children, drawn from the case files of Israeli family service agencies, studied longitudinally in both middle childhood and adolescence. Methods: Information about the children's adjustment was obtained from…

Alleged victims of child abuse are often the only sources of information about the crimes, and this places them in the role of experts when conversing about their experiences. Despite developmental deficiencies in memory, cognition, communication skills, and social style, researchers have shown that children's informativeness in such conversations…

Developmental differences in references to temporal attributes of allegedly experienced events were examined in 250 forensic interviews of 4- to 10-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse. Children's ages, the specific temporal attributes referenced, and the types of memory tapped by the interviewers' questions significantly affected the quantity…

The impact of anatomical dolls on reports provided by 3- to 12-year-old alleged sexual abuse victims (N = 178) was examined. Children produced as many details in response to open-ended invitations with and without the dolls. In response to directive questions, the 3- to 6-year-olds were more likely to reenact behaviorally than to report verbally,…

Although it is often assumed that men have an important influence on their children's development, the supportive evidence can be difficult to locate and summarize. In this paper, we analyse the evidence with respect to four emergent themes. First, men often appear to interact with their children less sensitively than mothers do, and many children…

Describes the factors that influence children's competence when they are being interviewed about sexual abuse and discusses ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the quality and quantity of information they obtain from alleged witnesses and victims. Strategies for developing rapport and eliciting factual information are described.…