When conducting these interviews a child’s development level is key to knowing which questions are appropriate to ask. The forensic interviewing process does not produce successful results in children under 4 because their language development and episodic memory is not fully formed (Goodman & Melinder, 2007). An adolescent is developmentally better able to provide more detail about an event when asked open-ended questions than preschool children who tend to disclose information accidentally (Cronch, Viljoen, & Hansen, 2006). These interviews are very precise and the interviewers prepare thoroughly before talking with the children. The technique selected is based on the child’s age and development level. The interviewers also use a variety of tools to help them during the interview. Some of these tools include, body maps, anatomically correct dolls, and touch surveys. Through discussion with Stacy Krietz, I learned that there has been research conducted that body diagrams, and correctly being able to identify body parts, does not correlate with children identifying that the body part was injured (personal communication, December 4th, 2015). I thought this new discovery will have various ripple effects throughout the profession because if defense attorneys discover this children’s interviews may be …show more content…
While the mom still has parental rights over the child, Grandma wants to petition for guardianship so she can also make decisions for the child. Mom does not like this idea because it is her child and she does not want anyone else to have authority in the decision making process. Permanency mediation would be helpful in this scenario to help Grandma and mom come to an agreement. Prior to mediation, all parties would think about what they want to get when the conference is over, seek legal advice, and gather all records related to the child (Diaz et al., personal communication, November 19th, 2015). Present at the mediation meeting would be the mediator, mom, Grandma, the GAL, the child, and the social worker. During this process the Grandma and mom would each discuss their points of view, with the mediator monitoring the discussion and asking for opinions from the child and GAL. The topics that would be discussed include, why mom is feeling anxious, what each of the adult’s roles and responsibilities would be regarding the child, what the visitation and custody agreement would be, and school changes if necessary. The process if permanency mediation would be helpful in this situation as it allows all