Which approach describes conducting a child interview during a psychoeducational evaluation?

• A. Use exclusively yes/no questions and avoid recording responses.
• B. Lead the child to confirm hypotheses through suggestive prompts.
• C. Build rapport, use developmentally appropriate questions, employ open-ended prompts, avoid leading questions, and record responses.
• D. Avoid any rapport-building to maintain objectivity.

Answer: (C)

The main concept here is gathering information from a child in a psychoeducational evaluation in a way that yields accurate, usable data. The best approach combines building rapport with developmentally appropriate questioning, using open-ended prompts, avoiding leading questions, and recording responses.

Building rapport helps the child feel safe and understood, which reduces anxiety and increases the likelihood that the child will share genuine thoughts and experiences. Using developmentally appropriate language ensures the child can understand and respond meaningfully. Open-ended prompts invite the child to explain, describe, and elaborate in their own words, providing richer, more nuanced information than yes/no questions. Avoiding leading questions is essential to minimize bias and take the child’s perspective at face value, rather than steering them toward a particular answer. Recording responses creates a reliable record for later analysis and helps integrate the interview data with formal test results and observations.

Options that rely only on yes/no questions limit depth and fail to capture context. Leading prompts push the child toward expected answers and distort the data. Skipping rapport-building can make the child guarded and less informative. Not recording responses jeopardizes the ability to review and synthesize findings.