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INTERVIEWING CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

Interviewing Children with Disabilities

Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am PST

Location: Online

REGISTER HERE

Course Description: This workshop is founded in forensic interviewing best practices with considerations and adaptations to account for individual disability, language capacity and cultural background. This workshop is designed to introduce MDT members to practical applications for communicating with children with disabilities including children labeled as “non-verbal”. The workshop will also include information on asking questions to elicit reliable information during a Forensic Interview with a child with a disability.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the disproportionate victimization statistics for individuals with disabilities.
  • Describe the unique characteristics of individuals with intellectual, physical, and communication disabilities.
  • Recall distinguishing features of disabilities that impact investigations.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of verbal communication in the context of communicating with and interviewing children with disabilities.
  • Recall specific accommodations that can be made during a forensic interview to effectively communicate with children with disabilities.

Target Audience: This training is designed for professionals working on multi-disciplinary teams (MDT’s) seeking to gain additional information about the risk factors, realities and strategies for interviewing children with disabilities.

Presenter: Staci Whitney, LMSW is the Senior Director for Modell Consulting Group, LLC. Since 2017, Ms. Whitney has been responsible for teaching and co-authoring multiple trainings on interviewing children and adults with disabilities.  This included leading a project with national experts to develop an advanced Forensic Interviewing Protocol for interviewing individuals with disabilities (Project FIND).  Ms. Whitney also conducts interviews for individuals with disabilities when referrals are made to Modell Consulting Group. Prior to her work with Modell Consulting Group, 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 children and individuals with disabilities who are victims or witnesses of crime. She has developed and delivered numerous trainings to Multidisciplinary Team Members and other professionals on recognizing and responding to suspicions and reports of child abuse.

Additional Information:

A link to join the webinar will be sent after you register.

All attendees will receive a Certificate of Attendance. Participants may apply for continuing education credits (CEUs) when they fill out the follow-up survey. Certificates for CEUs will be mailed to participants within two weeks following the event.

Course meets qualifications for 1.5 hours of Continuing Education Units.  The Center for Innovation and Resources, Inc. (CIR) is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs and LCSWs.  CIR maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  CEUs will be available after the webinar for a fee of $20.

For additional information please contact Kelly Flugum at kelly.flugum@cirinc.org 

Produced by the Center for Innovation and Resources, Inc. (CIR) with funding from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), Victim Services Branch with funding made possible through the United States Department of Justice, Victims of Crime Act, 2015-VA-GX-0058.

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