What is Child ABELS?
Child ABELS is a language and behaviour screen specifically designed for use with children under 11 and teenagers with special educational needs.
- It is a child friendly assessment especially designed for use by ABE practitioners
- ABELS uses a series of simple activities to assist rapport building with the child, while informing practitioners about a child’s communication abilities
- ABELS includes sections which check a child’s ability to understand the rules for interview including no guessing, correcting an adult’s errors and being able to say if they don’t understand
A simple traffic light scoring system is used to identify areas of the child’s communication strengths and weakness prior to initial account or Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) /VRI Interview.
Why Use ABELS with Children?
- Consistently identifies communication difficulties that may impact on questioning
- Encourages investigators to think about the value or not of taking an initial account
- Helps decision making about whether a Registered Intermediary should be used
- Assists development of rapport with child
- Encourages planning and preparation prior to any questioning
- Improves interviewer awareness of question formulation required for questioning
- Records decision making rationale
- Child focussed
Has ABELS Been Evaluated?
Yes. Following the operational trial in 2016, Norfolk police carried out an initial evaluation of child ABELS. A further evaluation has since been carried out Durham University. The results of both evaluations consistently found that ABELS is popular with practitioners who describe the benefits as follows:
- Enables investigators to take structured approach rather than using personal judgment
- Supports decision making about the use or not of a Registered Intermediary (RI)
- Aids rapport building
- Assists the ability to tailor question types to be suitable for each child
- Helps planning and preparation for interview
Anecdotal evidence from CPD training consistently shows that practitioners are thinking carefully about initial accounts v ABE.
It is anticipated that further academic evaluation of ABELS will take place in the near future, as part of research exploring attrition rates of child abuse investigations.
What does it do?
ABELS supports investigators to understand how communication is important in forensic interviews. It helps investigators understand any areas of communication that may be problematic and helps investigators think about how to ask questions safely. This reduces the risk of confused accounts, often exacerbated by poor questioning.
We strongly recommend that ABELS should be used before any questions are asked unless there is good reason not to do so e.g. the child spontaneously details what has happened or during a fast moving critical incident.
Training includes footage of children participating in ABELS, highlighting the risks associated with making assumptions about communication.
The ABELS pack that is licenced to the individual on completion of the course.
Is it just for police officers/investigators?
No. Any professional involved in talking to children as part of a child protection investigation can receive training. This can include social workers, safeguarding officers, paediatricians etc.