Ma.

Naomi Navarro-Poca, MD
Child Protection Specialist, WCPC, VSMMC
Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc.
 OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE
1. Describe the different ways to ensure that
child witness at different stages of
development will be:
a) Given the opportunity to offer complete and
truthful testimony and
b) Protected from severe emotional distress
induced by the judicial process in order to
safeguard their mental, emotional and
physical well-being.
.
 OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE
2. Discuss how children at different stages of
development understand concepts that are
routinely asked in court.

3. Demonstrate how to question children in a

manner that will elicit an accurate answer.
 Childs stage of development
affects court testimony

It influences the kinds of information the

child can provide in her testimony.

Inconsistencies in childrens testimony can

be a function of their stage of
development.
 Childs stage of development
affects court testimony

The skills commonly required in the

courtroom examination, such as counting
or telling time are not mastered overnight.

Children develop concepts gradually.

 Childs stage of development
affects court testimony
Credibility can be compromised by the use
of traditional methods of presenting
evidence when what is needed is a
developmentally sensitive process in order
to get accurate information from children.
 6 Basic Expectations of
Child Witnesses
1. They have observed or experienced the
event in question.
2. They can remember the event in
question.
3. They can communicate their recollection
verbally.
 6 Basic Expectations of
Child Witnesses
4. They understand the questions put to
them on the stand.

5. They are able to give intelligent answers

to the questions put to them on the
stand.

6. They are aware of their duty to speak

the truth.
Walker, 1993
There are a number
of skills which are
demanded of child
witnesses that are
not yet fully
developed until
children are at least
10 years of age or
older.
 Expectations Of Child Witness And The
Developmental Skills Involved
BEHAVIORAL DEMANDS DEVELOPMENTAL / OTHER SKILLS
INVOLVED
Demonstrate familiarity with Court Domain specific
Procedures & legal terms Knowledge & experience

Demonstrate an understanding of the Abstract thinking, religious & moral

oath, truth & lie understanding of concepts

Stand alone in the witness box Self-confidence, social independence

Testify in front of strangers Self-confidence, social independence

Face the accused Courage, calm temperament

Understand difficult questions Adequate receptive language

 Expectations Of Child Witness And The
Developmental Skills Involved
BEHAVIORAL DEMANDS DEVELOPMENTAL / OTHER SKILLS
INVOLVED

Withstand intimidation, social pressure, Emotional self-regulation

suggestions by lawyers

Retrieve memories even after long delays Well-developed memory function (short
& long term )

Respond to questions meaningfully Adequate Expressive language

Appear credible and confident in the Testimonial competency or all of the

witness box/ stand above

The Interaction Between Childrens Developmental Capabilities

and the Courtroom Environment: The Impact on Testimonial Competency, 2002
 Expertise of Interviewer
Even young children can provide
accurate accounts of experienced
events if adults question them
skillfully. (Olafson, 2007)
How early, how
long and how
accurately can
children
remember?
 Memory begins at
the earliest age:
30-week old fetus
already develops
short-term memory
Springen 2010

Need to develop:
memory strategies
to recall what is
stored.
Memory Strategies
 REMEMBERING: Retrieving
information from memory
Types of Remembering:

1. Recognition

2. Reconstruction

3. Recall
 Infancy (0-12 months)
Infants cannot talk
From birth to age 2 or
3 years, children store
information primarily
in non-verbal
memory.
Young children
express early trauma
through their
behavior.
 Infancy (0-12 months)
Infants cannot talk
Sexual abuse rarely
documented except under
certain circumstances:
a confession by a
perpetrator
an eyewitness
presence of sperm or semen
presence of a sexually
transmitted disease
physical findings indicating
sexual abuse
 New Cases Seen 2012
Breakdown of physical and sexual abuse cases by age

1147

Physical abuse 675

Sexual abuse
476 501
375
260
191 209
124 145 131
84 83
22

'0-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13-15 16-17 >18

How a Toddler Thinks (1-3 years)
Develop ability to use
a symbol, an object
or word to stand for
something.
Egocentric
Unable to solve
problems logically
Very short attention
span
 Memory of a Toddler
As early as 13 months old, the toddler has
the capacity to make and store memories
of specific events which they can
remember even after some time.

The level of language development at the

time of the event determines how much
the child is able to remember verbally at a
later time.
 Language of a Toddler
Can understand more than what they can
say.
Can say only around 20-25 words -
usually familiar objects and persons.
Can put 2 words together, e.g., sakit pepe

By 3 years, can speak 300 words and can

put words together in phrases or simple
sentences, e.g., Hawak ako dito.
Toddlers (1-3 years)
Most of these children cannot
participate in a focused interview.
Toddlers words alone are often not strong
enough to sustain the weight of the full
allegations credibility. Need other corroborative
evidence.
The emphasis of the assessment of abuse in
very young children is the protection of the child
and not necessarily criminal prosecution.
The Pre-School Child (3-5 years)

Concrete
Still egocentric
Make mistakes about
causality, e.g.,
things that happen
together
Still with short
attention span
Example of concrete thinking
Saan binaril si
Jose Rizal?

Reply:
Sa likod!
Language of the Preschool Child
(3-5 years old)
Can speak in sentences and tell a story.
Have limited words to describe sexual acts
that may have been committed.
Focus differently from older children and
adults
Focus on the ordinary and routine
Does not know how to organize the story
may not start from the beginning
Factors that affect remembering:
Young children need more questions and
prompts from adults in order to recall
more information.
They need adults to provide a framework
or cues to provide the details:
Did you go to the comfort room?
Who was in the comfort room?
What was the man doing?
Why young children are inconsistent

Young children do not remember all the

information they know in a single
interview.
May give brief and incomplete reports to
open-ended questions
Young children are highly
dependent on the questions asked
them by adults in giving their
report.
 Egocentric children think that the
interviewer knows everything that
happened to them.
Does not know what is important to the
interviewer.
Will not tell everything.

Examples:
Will not volunteer the information that other
children were also present.

Will not say that the perpetrator made her hold

his penis, etc. if the question is not asked.
 Understanding of Concepts by
3-5 years of age
By age 3 years,
children understand
basic ideas about
who, what (as in
What were you
wearing? but not
What happened?)
and where (familiar
area but not address).
 Use of Photographs and
Police Line-ups
Have difficulty
identifying
people they dont
know from
photos and
police line-ups.
 Understanding of Concepts by
3-5 years of age
The child at this
stage of
development will
not know the
date, specific time,
number of times,
duration, sequence
of events,
dimensions.
 Children will respond even if they
dont understand the concept.
Lawyer: How many
times did it happen?
Child: (silent)
Lawyer: Did it happen
many times?
Child: Yes.
Lawyer: So how many
times did it happen?
Note: Ability to recite is
Child: 100 times! not the same as ability to
count.
Understanding of Concepts by
3-5 years of age

There is no distant past, just

yesterday!

Kahapon can mean yesterday or

weeks or months ago.
 Suggestions
For number of
times
Child usually able to
talk about the most
recent event and the
first time it happened.

Note: Do not be too

concerned about
the number of
counts.
 Suggestions
For specific time
Relate when event
occurred with other
markers in the childs
daily schedule e.g.
breakfast, lunch,
arrived from school,
supper, at bedtime, or
what was on TV at
the time, where was Note: Must be
mommy. relevant to the
childs experience
Relevance of the childs specific
experience
Question: Reply:

Sina Michael at
Raphael ay
mga?
 Language of the Pre-school
Child (3-5 years)
They do not usually use
the correct terms for
various parts of the body
especially the genitalia.
Establish the childs
vocabulary for different
parts of the body and
should use the childs
terminology during the
questioning.
Language of the Preschool Child
(3-5 years)
There are many
words and grammar
rules that they do
not understand.
They do not
understand legal
terms e.g. witness
Concrete Understanding of child
Touch- Something to do with hands only.
If perpetrator used other parts of his body like
lips and penis, child will say she was not
touched. Does not include rubbing,
kissing, poking, etc.

House
Child may deny being in abusers house
because she was in his apartment.
 Preschoolers have difficulty classifying
objects into high-order categories.

Q: Did he remove your clothes?

A: No.
Q: What were you wearing at that time?
A: Nothing. He removed my shorts and t-
shirt
Note: Young children do not know how to
classify. Clothes for them is not the
same as shorts and t-shirt.
 Preschoolers have
difficulty comparing.
Who is taller,
fatter, older?

How far is it?

How big is it?

Preschoolers frequently confuse
the meaning of prepositions.
They mix up:
above and below

(pumatong)
in front and behind
in and on
(pinasok)
 Preschoolers have problems
with pronouns.
They do not know who is referred to by
the pronoun.

Example:
Where did he bring you?

Instead:
Where did Mike bring you?
 Preschoolers have difficulty
with negatives.
Sentences with negatives only produce
correct answers half of the time even if
the children know the facts.

Avoid phrases like:

Isnt it true that
Wouldnt you say
Do you deny that
 A case was dismissed because
of this negative question.

Prosecutor: Did he not do it?

5 year-old Child: Yes.

Young childrens answers to
yes/no questions need to be
interpreted with caution!
Unnecessary clauses make the
question difficult to understand.
Q: Do you remember telling Mama that Papa
had a knife when Jennifer got hurt?
A: Yes.
What did that yes mean?
Do you remember?
Telling Mama?
Papa had a knife?
Jennifer got hurt?
 An egocentric child cannot
accurately attribute motives
to others.
This explains why a young child may not
flee from an aggressor.

Young children generally believe that

adults are sincere.
 Avoid asking why questions.
This is an abstract question and asks
children to infer the motive of others.

Children will not know the answer and

they will interpret it as blaming them for
what happened.

Will probably not answer.

Young children can only focus
on one idea at a time.
Questions should be kept simple and
should only contain one idea.

Wrong: Did your Aunt, the one who

accompanied you to school, say anything
to you about this interview?
 Tag questions confuse
young children.
Examples:
You wanted to go with him, didnt you?

He didnt have a knife, did he?

 Children dont say that they do
not understand a question
and may not even know that they
misunderstood.
Children more likely to guess than
adults, because they are socialized to
respond.
They are likely respond to whatever
parts of the question that they
understand.
 Understanding of the oath
Do not ask children complex moral,
religious and social issues that is beyond
their understanding.

3 year-old children understand what is a

lie and what is telling the truth. They
do not understand the word oath or
to swear.
 Testimony
An old theory has
it that the Romans
placed their right
hands on their
testicles and swore
by them before
giving testimony in
court
Testimony in modern times
 Giving the oath
Research findings
show that when
children promise to
tell the truth, it
includes the act of
telling the truth.

Suggested way for a Do you promise that

child to take the oath you will tell the
is to simply ask: truth?
 Court Application
(Egocentric Period)
Lawyers should not Young children view
raise voices when the world from an
questioning the child egocentric and over-
witness and should personalized
argue objections out perspective and will
of the childs hearing. assume that they
have done something
wrong and may even
go to jail.
The School-Aged Child (6-9 years)

Carry out logical

reasoning but only at
concrete levels.

To some extent can

reason and solve
some problems.
 Memory accuracy
Short-term memory well developed
by age 7 (7 items +/-2)

Researches on childrens memory show

that from 6 years old and up, their
memory is as accurate as adults & no
more suggestible than adults.

Goodman et al 1996
Law Hum Beh 10: 317-332
 The School-Aged Child (6-9 years)

They have sufficient language skills to

participate in everyday language but will
have difficulty with the language of the
court.
They still face the same language and
understanding problems as preschoolers.
 The School-Aged Child (6-9 years)

Has learned to
classify and no longer
interpret words very
literally.

Example:
Understands that house can be an apartment
and that you can touch something with a part
of your body other than hand.
 The School-Aged Child (6-9 years)

They can recognize similarities

and differences between
groups of objects and events.
Ex. Can compare who is taller,
shorter, etc.
They still cannot accurately
estimate distances or sizes.
Ex. How big is the bathroom
in Romys house?
 Date
School-aged child may
remember that they were
living in a certain place or
attending a certain school
and her grade when the
abuse occurred; near other
meaningful events.
Can also be corroborated
by other witnesses.
Later in this stage, they
learn the days of the week
and then months of the
year.
 What the (6-9 years old)
school-aged child cannot do.
They have familiarity with numbers but
are not very accurate with them.

Example:
Child may still answer 5 times on one
occasion and 8 times on another. It
just means many times.
 What the (6-9 years old)
school-aged child cannot do.

Still have great difficulty estimating

another persons age.

Best way: To have child compare the

person they are talking about to someone
they know in the family.
 What (6-9 years old) school-aged
children STILL do not understand.
They do not know the
role of the lawyers:
prosecutor, defense
Do not understand the
adversarial process.
Cannot understand the
word evidence and
beyond reasonable
doubt.
 COMMON LEGAL TERMS & ROLES UNDERSTOOD
BY A MAJORITY OF CHILDREN IN DIFFERENT AGE RANGES

LEGAL TERMS PRESCHOOL EARLY LATER EARLY

PRIMARY PRIMAR ADOLESCENCE
(3-5) (6-9) Y (13-14/
(10-12)
JUDGE No Yes Yes Yes
COURT No Yes Yes Yes
POLICE Yes Yes Yes Yes
JAIL Yes Yes Yes Yes
LAWYER No No Yes Yes
TO BE FOUND No Yes Yes Yes
GUILTY
ACCUSED No No Yes Yes
EVIDENCE No No No No
TESTIFY No No Yes Yes
 COMMON LEGAL TERMS & ROLES UNDERSTOOD
BY A MAJORITY OF CHILDREN IN DIFFERENT AGE RANGES

LEGAL TERMS PRESCHOOL EARLY LATER EARLY

PRIMARY PRIMAR ADOLESCENCE
(3-5) (6-9) Y (13-14/
(10-12)
TRIAL No No Yes Yes

STATEMENT No No No Yes
PROSECUTION No No No No
LAWYER No No Yes Yes
OATH No No Yes Yes

LIE Yes Yes Yes Yes

TRUTH Yes Yes Yes Yes

Adolescence (10-15 years)
Learn to think
abstractly and
understand
generalizations

Start to understand
hypothetical situations
 Adolescence (10-15 years)

May still have many of the limitations of

the school-aged child.

Very close to achieving the mastery of

language that adults enjoy but continued
development is dependent on education.
 Older Adolescents
(15+ years)
Can accurately estimate times, distances
and physical dimensions using measured
units.
Can estimate date of event. However,
they are less likely than adults to take
note of dates because they pay less
attention to how time passes.
 Adolescents
Confusing or embarrassing questions can
cause a reaction that may have negative
effects such as refusal to answer, an
evasive or inaccurate answer or an
emotional outburst.

It is inappropriate to ask the child in

court: Did you enjoy the anal
intercourse?
 Emotional Factors
A childs age, is
not, in itself, a
sufficient indicator
of credibility or
ability to cope with
stress:
Different kinds of
temperament
Different ways of
coping
 Emotional Factors
Landmark study on child witnesses
showed that the more frightened the
children were about having to face the
accused, the less able they were to
answer the prosecutors questions.
Goodman, Taub, Jones et al (1992)
Testifying in criminal court: Emotional
Effects on child sexual assault victims.
Monographs of the Society for
Research in Child Dev, 57 (Serial no.229)
 Depression
Withdrawn Lack of motivation
Cannot concentrate Feeling hopeless
No Confidence and worthless
Answer in one- Suicidal thoughts
word response
Fail to make eye
contact
 Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Flashbacks of traumatic event

Feel like reliving, not merely retelling
the event
Dissociation- may appear emotionally
unaffected, lack of emotion, may
stare into space
 Ability to distinguish between
truthful and deceptive testimony
Adults ability to distinguish between
truthful & deceptive adults and children is
often not better than chance.
Edelstein et al , 2006; Talwar et al, 2006

Most legal professionals (police, lawyers,

judges) were no more accurate at
detecting deception than were untrained
individuals.
Aamodt & Custer, 2006
 Effects of stress on testimony and child

Intimidation and unrealistic fears may cause

child to withhold information reported previously
in less stressful situations
Temporary loss of memory
Put little effort in remembering in order to end
the ordeal quickly
May become silent
May reply with a series of I dont know or I dont
remember
May refuse to testify
 Suggestibility
Both children and adults are suggestible.
There are individual differences in
suggestibility.
Some contexts are more risky for
suggestibility than others.
1. Leading questions
2. Coercive interviewer -
Children may change their answer under
repeated questioning.
 Suggestibility
3. Inaccurate information
Young children assume that adults
are truthful. They may agree to what
the interviewer is pushing because
they want to please or because
part of the question is true but not
necessarily because the whole
question is true.
 Suggestibility
Ceci & colleagues (1994, 1999, 2000)
found that a majority of preschoolers
could be persuaded to report that they
have participated in positive events, e.g.,
flew in a hot air balloon when questioned
repeatedly & suggestively over many
weeks BUT the majority (69%) could not
be persuaded to report that they had been
injured when they had not.
 The Truthfulness of Children
False allegations do occur, but are rare:
1.5% in a series of 551 sexual abuse
notifications.
Oates K,et al. Child Abuse and Neglect,2000.24: p.149-157

0% in a series of 798 investigations.

Trocme, N. & Bala, N. Child Abuse and Neglect,2005.29: p.1333-345
Learning to communicate accurately with children
is not a matter of tipping the scales unfairly in favor
of either accuser or accused it is a matter of
giving everyone who enters the legal system equal
access to being understood.

Anne Graham Walker