Interviewing Children with Disabilities – Part I

This training is intended for forensic interviewers seeking to advance their understanding of basic communication techniques that are reliable, legally defensible, effective, and accommodating for individuals with disabilities who are alleged victims of abuse or neglect. Considerations and adaptations to account for individual disability, language capacity, and cultural background will be discussed. Participants will learn about biases and assumptions related to investigating cases involving victims or witnesses with disabilities, abuse dynamics, possible indicators of abuse or neglect, using a strength-based perspective, effective question types, and other information on eliciting reliable information from individuals with disabilities.

Presenter: Staci Whitney, LMSW with Modell Consulting Group

Staci Whitney, LMSW is the Senior Director for Modell Consulting Group, LLC (MCG). Since 2017, Ms. Whitney has been responsible for teaching and co-authoring trainings on interviewing individuals from vulnerable populations. Specifically, Ms. Whitney led two projects which included contributions from other national experts to develop advanced Forensic Interviewing protocols for interviewing individuals with disabilities (Project FIND) and older adults (SAFE). Prior to her work with MCG, Ms. Whitney was the Senior Forensic Interviewer at Bivona Child Advocacy Center in Rochester, NY and was responsible for developing Bivona’s Forensic Interviewing Program. During that time, Ms. Whitney had extensive training and experience in the field of Forensic Interviewing including interviewing individuals with disabilities who are victims or witnesses of crime. She has developed and delivered numerous trainings to Multidisciplinary Team Members internationally on recognizing and responding to suspicions and reports of abuse, neglect and maltreatment.

Register for this training by clicking here.

Part II coming December 18th.