Isabella’s bruise – the mock interview with commentary by Professor Martine Powell

this interview starts out well even

though James is quite anxious about what

his greeting is relaxed confident and

matter-of-fact he shows no sense of

wrongdoing or frivolity in his tone of

voice rather his behavior suggests that

the meeting with isabella is important

but there's no reason why she would not

want to engage isabella and james know

each other well which is why there was

no need for introduction isabella seems

at ease in James's company he has a

respectful courteous and transparent

manner of engaging as deputy principal

James wears multiple hats in the school

but he doesn't assume that isabella is

aware of all of those even though they

know each other

James must explain his current quite

distinct role in a concrete manner he

keeps his explanation brief and in terms

of what is expected of Isabella that is

we're going to have a talk he doesn't

bring up the top of concern yet to

elicit an honest and elaborate account

from Isabella he needs to establish a

good interviewing framework first by

promising to take Isabella back to her

mother

after the interview this helps relieve

potential anxiety James wants Isabella

to be as focused relaxed and non

distracted as possible

in this section James explains some

pragmatic rules that will enhance their

communication

he knows that conversational rules

change across different settings when he

teaches in the classroom for example

James encourages children to guess when

they don't know a response and he

discourages slang or swear words

here in the interview room isabella

needs to know which rules apply James's

tone words and manner support an

uninhibited and flexible communication

he uses short and simple sentences some

interviewers include a practical example

to reinforce the okay to say don't know

rule for example they ask the child a

question that the child could not

possibly know the answer to and then

reiterate why don't know was the correct

response James didn't feel that was

necessary with Isabella based on his

experience she was not a child that

seemed prone to suggestion

here James is doing an initial interview

with Isabella about a topic she's really

interested in rock climbing we call this

a practice narrative the practice

narrative isn't very long but it primes

Isabella - the open-ended style of

questioning and reinforces her role as a

valued informant importantly James

betrays a sense of ignorant and interest

in rock climbing for Isabella the

process of teaching James about her

experience is empowering and helps

establish her confidence as an informant

and her trust in the communication

process the practice narrative also gets

Isabella into a deep elaborate style of

memory processing one where she is doing

all the talking as opposed to giving

brief responses to more focused

questions this increases the likelihood

that Isabella will give elaborate

responses when later talking about the

topic of concern

even though James initiated the meeting

he knew it was best to try to get his

Abela to introduce and label the event

in her own words research suggests that

the best way to do this is to use the

prompt tell me what you've come to talk

to me about today if Isabella had said

she'd come to talk about how mrs. gray

hurt her James wouldn't have had to

raise any prior information in this case

he had to raise the mark but even so his

initiating prompt was still useful in

identifying and clarifying Isabella's

misconceptions about the purpose of the

interview raising prior information is

always risky James minimize this risk by

being open-minded he introduced the

concern without raising the issue of

contention which was how the mark got

there he showed open-mindedness by not

assuming that the mark was a bruise

James has clearly learned how to get a

narrative account from children he

starts the narrative with a broad

open-ended question tell me everything

that happened and start from the

beginning he uses a variety of

open-ended questions to then expand what

happened and elicit more elaborate

detail about parts of the event without

dictating what specific information is

required the story is allowed to unfold

Isabella's own pace and in her own words

James repeatedly uses phrases like what

happened to keep Isabella talking he

also uses nonverbal encourages such as

head nodding AHA and repeating back the

last few words

James reinforced the initial ground

rules in this process he said it was

okay when Isabella did not know a

response and he emphasized the

importance of being as detailed as

possible

James reflects confidence and patience

in his communication process through

long pauses and he does not react in any

particular way to what isabella is

saying isabella shouldn't have to deal

with James's internal thoughts fears and

reactions right now what she needs is to

be listened to understood and not judged

the fact that this interview is taking

place and the manner of engagement shows

Isabella that she is a valued member of

the school community and this is what

matters most to her children have the

right to be asked what happened to them

just like adults it takes a little while

but Isabella gradually starts to

understand the flow of the interview

when James directs Isabella to talk

about the event in question the arm

grabbing he still allows her to control

what she reports by using questions that

merely encourage her to provide more

information James doesn't show

irritation when he gets no response he

gently persists with another open

question in a neutral calm interested

way

James is aware of the danger of using

too many closed and specific questions

these heightened the potential for

unintentional error and misunderstanding

James minimize these questions by taking

time out to reflect on what additional

information he needed from Isabella

during closure James asks Isabella she

has any questions he keeps his promise

to walk Isabella back to her mother and

he finishes the interview by

reintroducing the positive topic the

rock climbing