Chapter 12: Interviewing Young Children Using Psycho-and Micro-Genetic Design Methodology to Assess Understandings of Reading and Writing: The Promise and Challenge

In the National Research Council’s report Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001), the authors suggest that two methodological approaches, the clinical interview and dynamic assessment are the best suited “to identify the child’s underlying processes of thought” (Bowman et al., p. 243) and “to provide insight into the kind of educational experiences that will be most effective in helping particular children learn” (p. 245). Developed early on in the twentieth century by Piaget (1923/1959, 1926/1960, 1927/1930) and Vygotsky (1987, 1997; see also Luria, 1929/1998), clinical interviewing, in particular, involves skillful face-to-face interviewing which is designed to be experimental as well as “flexible, responsive and open-ended,” drawing children into conversations about their reasonings related to certain cognitive tasks (in this case, learning to read and write) which may or may not be immediately reflected in their actual performances (e.g., writing samples, emergent readings, test scores) or even by regular and sustained observation. Ginsburg’s (1997) assessment of Piaget’s use of the clinical interview method is that it resulted in “what is arguably the single most brilliant and influential body of research ever produced in developmental psychology” (p. 54).