About Advanced Forensic Interview Training

Advanced Forensic trainings are meant for experienced forensic interviews who are looking to expand and deepen their knowledge while getting to discuss with other trained professionals.

Scholarship Opportunities

**Scholarships are available for Minnesota multidisciplinary team members through the Minnesota Children’s Alliance. See information here: Minnesota Children’s Alliance Scholarship Opportunity

Courses

ChildFirst® Expanded Forensic Interview Process (ChildFirst® EX)

Based on the nationally-recognized ChildFirst® Forensic Interview Protocol, this 2.5-day training provides a purposeful and legally defensible process for conducting expanded forensic interviews with children who may not succeed in a standard, single interview due to trauma, developmental, special needs or other complicating issues, including poly-victimization.

This training is designed for investigative teams of law enforcement officers, social workers, prosecutors, child protection attorney, and forensic interviewers.

This training will teach the expanded interview process as well as research supporting multiple, non-duplicative interviews with child victims and witnesses.

Participants must have completed a nationally recognized basic child forensic interview training.

ChildFirst® Refresher Training

• Review of ChildFirst® and recent updates to the protocol
• Practical applications and logistical processes
• Skills needed to successfully complete or monitor a forensic interview
• Updates to research in the field of child abuse/maltreatment and forensic interviewing

Webinars:

Drawn to the Facts: Utilizing Drawings in Forensic Interviews

Many tools can be used during forensic interviews such as anatomical diagrams, anatomical dolls, and things children draw during the interview. Utilizing drawings during forensic interviews can help the interviewer gain more information and understanding regarding what the child is discussing. The presenter will speak on multiple ways to use drawings during the interview and discuss what research says regarding utilizing drawings in forensic interviews. Real-life examples will be given, and participants should walk away from this presentation with a better understanding of how children’s drawings during the interview can help provide the team with more information.

FIRST Response: Interviewing Children on the Scene

Protecting children from child abuse requires that everyone understand how to recognize, respond, and report any form of maltreatment a child may experience. FIRST will give you and your community the tools necessary to better protect kids. This training goes beyond recognizing types of maltreatment. The training combines both lecture and practicum, giving participants the tools and practical skills to better communicate with a child during the initial outcry of maltreatment. This training teaches participants how to listen to children who have experienced maltreatment and gather the correct information needed in a way that puts the child’s needs first.

Interviewing and Working with Queer Youth: Understanding the Cultural Context

This session will cover the dynamics of interviewing and working with queer youth who are potential victims of violence or abuse. Topics discussed will include dynamics of abuse and violence in the queer community, barriers to service, historical context and power dynamics, risk factors, and suggestions for building inclusion into your practice, both on the individual level when interviewing queer youth, as well as the organizational level when working with queer youth in general.

Interviewing Individuals with Disabilities

This session will explore how interviewing children and adults with disabilities differs from interviewing individuals without disabilities and will review best practices. Attendees will learn how to adjust the physical space for individuals with physical, mental, and/or developmental disabilities, as well as how to adjust their interview question structure and phrasing. This session will begin with an overview of best practices surrounding working with individuals with disabilities in general. It will then dive into forensic interviewing best practices and applicable research on interviewing children and adults with disabilities.

Interviewing Children with Disabilities

This session will explore how interviewing children with disabilities differs from interviewing children without disabilities, and will review best practices. Attendees will learn how to adjust the physical space for children with physical, mental, and/or developmental disabilities, as well as how to adjust their interview question structure and phrasing. This session will begin with an overview of best practices surrounding working with children with disabilities in general, and how to adjust your organization and/or workspace to be as child friendly as possible. It will then dive into forensic interviewing best practices and applicable research on interviewing children with disabilities.

It’s a Spectrum: Forensically Interviewing Children with Autism

This webinar will survey the history of Autism diagnoses in children and how changes over time have affected the techniques we use in forensic interviews. We will discuss how the nuances of Autism Spectrum Disorder play a role in how we prepare for, conduct, and debrief a forensic interview. We will also discuss the intersectionality between Autism Spectrum Disorder and various forensic interview dynamics.

Media and Pop Culture: How Our Culture Impacts Perceptions of Child Abuse and Maltreatment

This session will examine examples in our media, pop culture, and entertainment industry related to child abuse and maltreatment. These examples will highlight how public perception of child abuse is impacted and often normalized in ways we may not always realize.

Reading the Room: The Importance of Understanding Body Language in Forensic Interviews

In this webinar, participants will learn about the importance of being able to recognize body language cues in forensic interviews and to what extent they happen subconsciously. We will discuss how body language cues may be dependent on a child’s age, culture, and experiences. Paticipants will learn neutral interview statements that can be made when seeing certain body language cues with different age groups. Lastly, we disscuss subconscious interviewer body language and the possible implications this body language could have on the child being interviewed. Throughout the training, we will discuss case examples looking at prominent body language cues.

Recantation: Why Does it Happen and What Do We Do?

This presentation will discuss the dynamics behind recantations of child abuse disclosures, both in forensic interviews and outside of forensic interviews. This session will review frequently asked questions about recantation, such as “why does recantation happen?”, “can we avoid recantation?” “how do we minimize the likelihood of recantation”, and “what do we do now?”. Participants will leave with an understanding of recantation and child abuse dynamics, follow-up recantation forensic interviews, and next steps for investigative team members in child abuse cases that involve full and partial recantations/retractions of children’s statements.

Teen Dating Violence: Forensic Interviewing and the Importance of a CAC Approach

This presentation will discuss the prevalence of teen dating violence in your community. There will be a focus on the importance fo forensically interviewing teenagers who are survivors of teen dating violence, as well as providing individualized advocacy services to the teenagers and their caregivers. Using a child advocacy center model and a multidisciplinary team model, this presentation will highlight the dynamics of teen dating violence nationally.

Understanding and Overcoming Complex Interview Dynamics

This presentation will discuss the unique and individual needs of youth in the forensic interview. Participants will be able to identify recommendations and considerations of multiple intersectionalities that can present in the forensic interview such as: Children with Disabilities, Diverse and Cultural Backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ Youth, and Children with no Non-offending Caregiver.

What Children Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Asking Questions

This training examines how children remember and recall experiences, with a focus on applying research to investigative interviews with children. Participants will learn how factors like age, development, trauma, and cognitive ability influence memory, and how memory can be both reliable and vulnerable to suggestion. We’ll explore common misconceptions, the effects of stress, and the critical role that questioning plays. Research shows that poorly worded or leading questions can distort a child’s memory, while open-ended, trauma-informed approaches help elicit accurate and detailed accounts. This training is ideal for professionals in child protection, forensic interviewing, law enforcement, and mental health who want to better understand and support how children recall and share their experiences.