Acknowledgements

1. Pamela Snow, PhD, MAPSSchool of Psychology and Psychiatry Monash UniversityAUSTRALIApamela.snow@monash.eduMartine Powell, PhD, MAPSSchool of PsychologyDeakin UniversityAUSTRALIA3rd Annual Conference of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group, Norway, June 2010. Oral language competence and the investigative interview: Evidence from community and incarcerated young offenders

2. Acknowledgements • Criminology Research Council • Australian Research Council (Discovery Program) • Loddon-Mallee Youth Justice • Malmsbury Youth Training Centre

3. Where in the world??

4. In this presentation • Oral language competence - what is it and why is it relevant to the investigative interview? • Our research on the language skills of youth offenders • Implications • Education – the early years • Early intervention • Forensic Interviewing • Youth Justice Interventions • Restorative Justice Conferencing

5. Oral language competence and risk in the developmental years • Positioning oral language competence within a broader risk and protective framework for adolescent mental health • Social determinants of health and well-being across the life-span • Early OLC and the long-term protective benefits of transition to literacy / educational attainment

6. “Language Impairment” – what does it mean? • Difficulties with auditory processing, i.e. “taking in “ information that is heard, especially if this is long or linguistically complex • Difficulties formulating one’s own thoughts and ideas into sentences and conversational discourse so they can be shared with others • Difficulties processing and using non-literal language

7. Surface and hidden meanings • Similes • Metaphor • Idiom • Jokes • Sarcasm

8. Our prior research on the language skills of youth offenders (See Reference List) • Youth offending as a serious health issue • 3 studies with community samples of male youth offenders • LI over-represented but under diagnosed • Study No. 3 (n=50 young offenders) – 52% LI • In community sample, LI not explained by low IQ • Questions about possible links between LI and Hx of violent offending remained unanswered

9. Current study: Custodial youth offenders • Low rates of incarceration in Victoria • “Dose-response” relationship between level of risk and prevalence / severity of LI? • Links between existence of LI and pattern of offending? (Violent Vs Non-violent) • Links between LI and other developmental risks (mental health problems, CP involvement) • Implications for forensic interviewing

10. Measures: Current Study Data collection is ongoing – early unpublished data from Study 4 n= 80; (n=100 recruited) • Test of Language Competence – Expanded Edition: 3 subtests • Ambiguous Sentences • Figurative language • Listening Comprehension • Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 4th edition: Core Language Score • Concepts and Following Directions, Word Structure, Recalling Sentences and Formulating sentences

11. Current Study: Measures cont. • Narrative Language • Cormier-Lang Scale (Offending Severity and Type) • Depression, Anxiety & Stress Scale (DASS) • K-BIT2 matrices subtest – NV IQ • Background / Biographical information

12. All Groups: Age last birthday *All post-hoc comparisons significant

13. Nonverbal IQ (K-BIT2 Matrices scaled scores)

14. Background Information x Offender group

15. Background Information

16. Language Impairment: Community Vs Custodial Offender Groups

17. TLC-E subtest 1 – Understanding Ambiguous Sentences *All post-hoc comparisons significantly different

18. TLC-E subtest 4 – Figurative Language *All post-hoc comparisons significantly different

19. Custodial Group: Language Impairment subgroups x Offending Scores (non-violent and violent)

20. Summary / Implications • Further evidence that young offenders are a high-risk group for unidentified language impairment • Provisional support for the notion of a dose-response relationship between language impairment and risk for serious offending (violent and non-violent) • Language impairment is not necessarily evident to an interviewer, because….

21. Language problems are invisible

22. Language Impairment may masquerade as • Rudeness • Indifference / lack of concern • Poor motivation to cooperate • “Yep, nup, dunno, maybe”…Minimalist responses • Suggestibility

23. Implications cont • Forensic Interviewing – further (subtle) marginalistion or access to justice and a fair trial? • ?Need for Speech Language Pathology screen of young offenders • Interventions delivered in the Youth Justice system • Restorative Justice Conferencing – a highly verbal, conversational process; genuine expressions of emphatic concern are important

24. Caveats and Cautions • Data collection ongoing • Custodial data is unpublished • Cross-sectional so no causal inferences • Limited range of language measures • Some reservations re the sensitivity of the Cormier-Lang Scale

25. Publications: Investigative Interviewing . Feltis, B., Powell, M.P., Snow, P.C., & Hughes-Scholes, C.H. (2010). The effect of open-ended questions in eliciting story grammar detail in child abuse interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34, 407-413. Snow, P.C., Powell, M.B., & Murphett, R. (2009). Getting the story from child witnesses: Exploring the application of a story grammar framework. Psychology, Crime & Law 15(6), 555-568. Murfett, R., Powell, M.B., & Snow, P.C. (2008). The effect of intellectual disability on children’s adherence to a ‘story-telling’ framework during an investigative interview. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability 33(1), 2-11. Powell, M.B. & Snow, P.C. (2007). Recommendations for eliciting a disclosure of abuse from a young child. Australian Police Journal, 61(2), 76-80. Powell, M.B. & Snow, P.C. (2007). A guide to questioning children during the free-narrative phase of an interview about abuse. Australian Psychologist, 42(1), 57-65. Agnew, S. E., Powell, M.B., & Snow, P.C. (2006). An examination of the questioning styles of police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities Legal & Criminological Psychology. 11(1), 35-53.

26. Publications: Language and risk. Snow, P.C. & Sanger, D.D. (in press). Restorative justice conferencing and the youth offender: Exploring the role of oral language competence. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Accepted for publication 8 May 2010. Antoniazzi, D., Snow, P. & Dickson-Swift, V. (2010). Teacher identification of children at risk for oral language impairment in the first year of school. International Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 12(3), 244-252. Snow, P.C. (2009). Child maltreatment, mental health and oral language competence: Inviting Speech Language Pathology to the prevention table. International Journal of Speech Language Pathology 11(12), 95-103. Snow, P.C. (2009). Oral language competence and equity of access to education and health. In K. Bryan (Ed) Communication in Healthcare. Interdisciplinary Communication Studies Volume 1 (Series Editor: Colin B. Grant), (pp 101-134). Bern: Peter Lang European Academic Publishers. Snow, P.C. & Powell, M.B. (2008). Oral language competence, social skills, and high risk boys: What are juvenile offenders trying to tell us? Children and Society 22, 16-28. Snow, P.C. & Powell, M.B. (2005). What’s the story? An exploration of narrative language abilities in male juvenile offenders. Psychology, Crime and Law 11(3) 239-253. Snow, P. & Powell, M. (2004). Interviewing juvenile offenders: The importance of oral language competence. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 16(2), 220-225. Snow, P.C. & Powell, M.B. (2004). Developmental language disorders and adolescent risk: A public-health advocacy role for speech pathologists? International Journal of Speech Language Pathology 6(4), 221-229. Humber, E. & Snow, P.C. (2001). The oral language skills of young offenders: A pilot investigation. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 8(1), 1-11.

27. Thank you For further information: Dr Pamela Snow pamela.snow@monash.edu Tel +61-3-5440 9006