Table 3.

Examples of Recommended and Suboptimal Questions

Recommended Questions	Suboptimal Questions
Rapport-building—invitations
Tell me what you like to do.	Do you like sports?
Tell me what happened the last time you [activity].	Are you good at soccer?
Assessing abuse—with prior report
Tell me what you came to talk to me about today.	Do you know why you came to see me?
I heard you talked to a [disclosure recipient] Tell me what you talked about.	I heard you told your teacher that [name] touched your privates.
You said [child’s words]. Please help me understand what happened.
What happened next?
Tell me more about [child’s words].
Assessing abuse—without prior disclosure
What do you call it where pee/poop comes out?	Has anyone ever touched your private parts in a way you didn’t like?
Tell me everyone who has touched your [child’s term].	Did [name] touch your private parts?
You said [name of toucher]. Tell me what happened.
Eliciting details
How did you feel when/after s/he touched you?	Did it hurt? Did s/he touch you inside or outside your privates?
What did you see when you went to the bathroom?	Did anything come out of his privates? Did blood come out of your privates?
Where were your clothes when you were touched?	Were your clothes on or off?
Closure
What questions do you have for me?	Do you have any questions for me?