Child-welfare practice training
Interviewing Infants & Toddlers
Developmental and attachment-informed learning for assessing very young children when direct verbal interviewing is limited.
The practice question
Infants and toddlers communicate through development, behavior, play, relationships, and physical presentation. Child-welfare professionals must gather meaningful information without treating young children like older interview subjects.
The approach
The workshop connects developmental milestones, attachment observations, indicators of abuse and neglect, caregiver engagement, objective documentation, and trauma-informed questioning. Practice scenarios ask learners to reason through unexplained injury, developmental concern, environmental hazards, and caregiver-child interaction.
The contribution
A structured approach to observation and caregiver interviewing that strengthens developmental reasoning, documentation, and collaboration with medical and other multidisciplinary partners.
