Interview a school age child to pre-adolescent (age 7-11; grade 1-6) using the questions below. In interviewing the child, be sure to tell him/her that the interview is for a project for your course in development. Assure him/her that he/she has the right not to answer any of the questions and may stop the interview at any time. Let him/her know that no one will see the answers to the interview questions and that their names will not be used. In giving the interview, write down as much of his/her responses as you can. You might consider tape recording the interview to avoid taking time to write the answers during the interview. Be sure to ask permission to use a tape recorder and assure him/her that the tape will be erased.

Feel free to add questions to the interview as appropriate while talking to the child, but be sure to cover all of the issues included. Many of the questions are meant to have more than one or two sentence answers. You will need to practice using follow-up probes to get longer answers: –Can you tell me more about that? –I don’t understand. Can you give me an example? –How does that make you feel? –How important is that to you? –using “uh-huh” and head nodding may also lead to more responding

Incorporate questions about culture as appropriate. Culture includes religion, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, age, gender, etc.

Interview Questions:

1. How old are you?

2. What grade are you in?

3. How old are your parents?

4. What type of work do your parents do?

5. How many brothers and sisters do you have? How do you get along with them?

(Only child, Do you wish you had siblings? Why or why not?)

6. Tell me about your family. What do you do together?

7. What chores do you do at home? 8. What athletics, clubs, or other activities do you participate in? Tell me a little about them.

9. Do you like the activities that you are in? Do you wish you were involved more? less?

10. What TV shows do you watch? Video Games?

11. How much time each day do you spend watching television and videos, or playing video games?

12. How much time do you spend on the internet? What do you do on the internet?

13. Tell me about your friends. What do you do with them?

14. Do you have any best friends? How would you describe them? 15. How are your parents are strict with you? 16. How do your parents get you to do your schoolwork? How do you feel about this?

17. Tell me about school? What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it?

18. If you could change your school, what would you do to change it?

19. What makes a good teacher? Can you describe one of your best teachers?

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

21. Is there anything else that you would like to tell me about yourself?

Student question. Based on what you’ve learned, ask at least one more question; what else

would you like to know about this person’s life?

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After you describe the interview, discuss your reaction (three paragraphs).

1. What did you learn? Did anything surprise you?

2. How did you feel during the interview?

3. What changes (if any) have occurred in your perception of older adults? (What did you think

before? What do you think now?)