Training Overview
A First-of-Its-Kind, Multi-Module Training Series
For professionals who may talk with children about abuse — outside official CAC forensic interview roles. Whether in mental health, healthcare, education, child welfare, law enforcement, or frontline work, gain the skills to respond safely without causing harm.
Professionals in many settings have contact with children who may have witnessed or been a victim of violence. Children sometimes make statements that are as alarming as they are unclear, resulting in a professional feeling anxious about child safety and confusion about how to manage a mandated report. In some situations, professionals need clarity regarding a child’s statement and in other situations professionals need to get some information from a child before or after an investigation and child forensic interview.
This training will teach child serving professionals across disciplines how to talk with the child in a non-invasive manner that allows the child to provide basic information about the concerns and feel supported in the process. Specific emphasis will be on how to enhance rapport building throughout an interview, address the importance of including narrative event practice prior to talking about the issue of concern, and will teach specific interview techniques focusing on the use of open-ended questions from narrative event practice through basic questioning about the concerns.
Presenters will cover memory and cognitive development research and the values of these skills. Presenters will also provide an overview of the components of child maltreatment investigations and child forensic interviewing. Attendees will learn and practice new skills that may help them respond effectively to children who make statements that raise child maltreatment or family violence concerns. The goal of using these skills is to support the child, get helpful basic information, and enhance, not hinder an investigation.
Learn the Why, When & How
Safe, developmentally appropriate, evidence-informed interviewing skills — stay in your role and reduce risk.
Why does this training matter?
- Fills a national gap for non-CAC interviewers
- Promotes trauma-informed, child-centered, legally sound practice
- Led by national experts in forensic interviewing & child protection
MODULE 2: The Practice of How?
- Define Roles: Participants will describe why, when, and how to talk with children when abuse and violence are a concern.
- Describe Skills for Gathering Information from Children: Rapport building, narrative event practice, transition to concern, open-ended questions, recording information, and supporting trauma-informed closure.
- Demonstrate Ways of Talking with Children that are Supportive, Warm, and Sustain Rapport: Role play and practice.
- Apply Open-Ended Questioning Techniques: Participants will learn how to utilize open-ended questions and narrative event practice to gather accurate, reliable information from children about their experiences.
- Demonstrate Non-Invasive Interviewing Skills: Participants will learn techniques to establish rapport and conduct child-friendly, non-invasive conversations that encourage children to share concerns and basic information.
- Explain Supportive Conversations for Child Well-being: Professionals will be able to more effectively respond to children’s statements in a manner that supports ongoing investigations, maintains trust, and prioritizes the child’s emotional safety.
Register Through APSAC
This is an in-person event offered on two dates:
- Sunday, January 25, 2026 – in-person at the APSAC Pre-Conference to the 41st Annual San Diego Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment in San Diego, CA.
- Sunday, June 14, 2026 – APSAC 33rd Annual Colloquium, New Orleans, LA