During the assessment process for individuals with complex communication needs, I try to provide some coaching to the students around developing interview questions. Tools like Social Networks Inventory are specific to this effort, and I also encourage the students to keep in mind what information they need for other such published tools like the Functional Communication Profile-Revised or TECEL. I do not work for the companies and have no interest in whether or not they are used, I present them to students as examples of systematic means to structure their efforts. Gathering information related to multimodal communication/AAC is a HUGE process, and it’s been my experience that students feel completely at odds with ~how~ to approach it. So I share these kinds of tools as resources for their consideration to guide their efforts strategically.
After we talk in person, I send a follow-up email to review the key points in written form (in this instance, the client is a “she/her”):
“Thank you for meeting today — we were able to talk about a lot, and it is clear that you have been reflecting on our fundamental questions of “what do we know?” and “what do we need to know?”
Even just in our discussions, I might broadly characterize these questions to be dispersed around three main threads:
– learning more about the client overall (e.g., elements of a typical day, interests, sensory needs, etc.),
– specifics related to her communication (e.g., what she may understand, what she may signal/express with her behavior), and
– partner interaction patterns (e.g., how information is presented, how she is watched for meaningful responses, how responses are confirmed, etc.)
We talked about how the next step will be to carefully consider what the best means of getting this information may be — email, requests for reports, talking on the phone or in person and, if through talking, how to structure and unfold that interaction to “maintain a comfortable and productive relationship” using the information from Westby, Burda & Mehta (2003) as a guide.
(1). Do you already have a sense of what may be reasonably developed by email or requests for reports? I think we used as a loose guide that any question where we may want to have an example would be good to have on the phone or wait for them to actually be here because it may be best handled in such a way that you can attend to subtleties of tone of voice, pausing, and more detail.
(2). If you have not done so already, I strongly encourage you to review the protocols for the published tools we have discussed to begin filling in what has been observed, what areas you would want to ask about (by email or interview) for this part of the process, and what areas you feel you would definitely need to observe (either by video or directly). Please consider your questions as a means to the end goal of being able to use these published tools to structure information gathering, and informing the process’ next steps.
(3). In terms of interview etiquette, I would always strongly encourage starting off with introductions and giving a general overview of the goals. This is an opportunity to establish that the intention is learning/sharing (information discovery) and planning (preparing for next steps), not to judge or criticize (which is often how any questioning format may feel).
As an example, I put this as if Student 1 was the first speaker and covering a general sense of the client — there’s no particular reasoning for that in my thinking, and we could structure this in whatever way you guys felt appropriate; however, it needs to be outlined more specifically for who is asking what so that there is a coordinated plan.
Example: “Hi, Client Mom, this is Student 1. It is so great to have this chance to talk. We have reviewed the information that you sent ahead, and watched the videos. I just have a few questions for you so that we can get to know Client better. Then Student 2 is going to ask a little more about Client’s communication. All of this will help us plan for your visit here. To start though, do you have any questions or concerns?”
If she is feeling okay about things, my all-time favorite “Descriptive” or “Grand Tour” question for parents or teachers to start is simply: “Tell me about Client.” In this case, I might add a clause like, “You have provided us with so much wonderful information with the reports you sent, but it would be great to hear from you: Tell me about Client.” A remarkable amount of information can unfold in such a simple question: the parent or teacher’s frame of reference for that child, his/her conceptualization of the specific concern and/or of disability in general; the most important goal or most critical need; a sense of the child’s personality/interests/activities/family life; parent/teacher anxieties/concerns/fatigue, etc. Follow-up or “Mini Tour” questions would include asking for use rather than meaning (e.g., “Give me an example of….”), restating (repeating in exact words, do not paraphrase or interpret), and summarizing with the intent of allowing for clarification. “Tell me about a typical day” is another great descriptive/grand tour question and presents lots of opportunities to follow up with likes/dislikes (what does he do to convey preferences/rejection), sense of mood or energy across the day, motor skills, sensory demands, etc.
Listening to her responses to these kinds of questions may well resolve many of the questions you guys identified on its own, or lead into unexpected directions as well. A key piece though is anchoring her as the expert of her child; therefore, letting her lead the revelations about her within a gentle structure of getting information we need to get a profile of her skills/needs and plan appropriately.
Student 1 would then ‘wrap-up’ and transition to Student 2: “Client Mom, I feel like we are learning so much about Client. Student 2 has a few questions for you which are more specific to her communication but I wanted to confirm if there is anything else you would like us to know about her generally?”
With this piece, there would be a brief overview again and to try and start with a Descriptive/Grand Tour question related to communication; as in, Student 2: “Good afternoon, Client Mom. I just have a few questions to clarify our sense of what Client understands and expresses from what you have shared with us so far with the videos and today. Please share with us your thoughts on Client’s communication.” More detailed questions about her hearing, vocabulary she may know, functions of communicating (requests, protest/reject, get attention, etc.), behaviors or signals observed, etc., may naturally unfold or can be asked as follow-ups in the same way as described above (use rather than meaning, restating, summarizing).
I would encourage again an opportunity for her to convey questions/concerns, and “Is there anything else that you feel is important for us to know about Client.”
I then close with an Action Plan for what I need from them next; primarily, dates/times that we can share with the parent to schedule the interview, an outline of who is asking what. I also indicate that they need to be actively thinking about the next step as well: what information they will need to observe directly, and how they will go about establishing situations and gathering that data.