Dialogical communication with children: How to talk with children about sensitive subjects.

Such topics include violence, abuse and neglect that children are subjected to.

The method used is the dialogical communication method (DCM) which has been based on and developed from studies on child interviews conducted by police or child welfare workers (Gamst & Langballe, 2004; Langballe, Gamst & Jacobsen, 2010). This method is used in judicial (forensic) interviews, child’s substantive asylum interview and interviews conducted by child protective services investigations.

This method is intended to provide adults with tools on how to conduct an interview with a child. The interview should be conducted in such a way that the child feels acknowledged during the interview and is given the opportunity to talk as freely and spontaneously as possible about their experiences and perceptions of these experiences without being interrupted by the adult. 

In numerous situations the elements of the DCM, described in this report, have been practiced. It has been shown that these methodological principles are useful when discussing difficult and sensitive topics with a child. Knowledge of the individual child and their individual case naturally directs how the different elements are employed.