About In My Shoes
Does the child use it alone?
The program has been designed so that a trained adult will sit alongside the child and assist, guide and interact with them through a structured interview process. The information that is gained is a product of the three-way interview; it is not a question and answer session with the computer. However, the nature of the program is such that children who are unable to use the spoken word can still, with appropriate support, use the tools within the computer program to give an indication of their experiences and feelings.
How does it help?
In My Shoes is an excellent means of engaging the child and building rapport between the child and the interviewer. It promotes communication in a unique way, and provides a structure for the interviewer, which helps to maximise the opportunity for the interview to address sensitive areas and to facilitate sharing information. It helps children to communicate about their experiences, thoughts, feelings and wishes. It also provides extensive and detailed session records. It provides a wealth of pictures for later use and discussion.
What is In My Shoes?
In My Shoes is a computer package that helps children and vulnerable adults communicate about their experiences including potentially distressing events or relationships. Extensive testing shows it can be used in a wide range of circumstances, including interviews with children who may have been abused, or who have difficulties in expressing emotions, who are hard to engage or who have developmental delay or other difficulties. It has been used successfully in interviewing learning disabled adults.
How does it work?
In My Shoes uses images, sound, speech and video. Through a series of modules, children are encouraged to share information on their experiences and emotions with different people in home, educational and other settings. The interview is structured, systematic and clear. Forensic considerations have been central to its development, and the focus is on facilitation of communication about the subject areas, with leading questions being avoided.
The development team
Rachel Calam, Professor of Child and Family Psychology, University of Manchester.
Antony Cox, Emeritus Professor of Child Psychiatry, Guys Hospital, London.
David Glasgow, Forensic Clinical Psychologist, Carlton Glasgow Partnership, Lancashire.
Phil Jimmieson, Lecturer, Computer Science, University of Liverpool.
Sheila Groth Larsen, Educational Psychologist, Liverpool.
Liza Bingley Miller, Independent Social Work Consultant, Child and Family Training.
Bill Joyce, Child and Family Training.
The Department of Health, the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester supported development of the program. The current version and the training programme was completed with support from the Instone Bloomfield Charitable Trust and the Department for Education and Skills
The program is described more detail in:
Calam, RM, Cox, AD, Glasgow, DV, Jimmieson, P and Groth Larsen, S (2000) Assessment and therapy with children: can computers help? Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 5(3) 329-343.
Research Using In My Shoes:
Fängström, K., Bokström, P., Dahlberg, A., Calam, R., Lucas, S., & Sarkadi, A. (2016). In My Shoes–Validation of a computer assisted approach for interviewing children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 58, 160-172.
Backer, C., Murphy, R., Fox, J. R., Ulph, F., & Calam, R. (2016). Young children's experiences of living with a parent with bipolar disorder: Understanding the child's perspective. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
Bokström P, Fängström K, Calam R, Lucas S, Sarkadi A.'I felt a little bubbly in my tummy': eliciting pre-schoolers' accounts of their health visit using a computer-assisted interview method. Child Care Health Dev. 2016 Jan;42(1):87-97. doi: 10.1111/cch.12293. Epub 2015 Nov 12.
Grasso, F, Atkinson, K and Jimmieson, P (2013) In My Shoes - A Computer Assisted Interview for Communicating with Children about Emotions. Proceedings of the 2013 Humaine Association Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2013),2-5 September 2013, Geneva, Switzerland, IEEE press
Stewart, C (2012) ‘Where can we be what we are?’: the experiences of girls with Asperger syndrome and their mothers. Good Autism Practice. 13, 40-48
Cousins, J and Simmonds, J (2011) Investigating the involvement of disabled children in using In My Shoes as a family-finding tool - A pilot project. Adoption & Fostering, 35(4) 2011.
Twynholm, J (2009) Computer aided assessment of children’s recurrent pain. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Manchester
Wardman, V. (2008) Physical disabilities: Pictorial representation and self perception. Doctoral thesis. University of Manchester. Unpublished.
Barratt, W. Seeking and Taking Account of the Views of Children and Young people: A Psychological Perspective. Professional Development Programme (PDP) for Educational Psychologists in Scotland 2006-07
Glasgow, D & Crossley R (2004) Achieving Best Evidence: A comparison of 3 interview strategies for investigative interviews in a forensic population with mild learning disabilities. In Learning Disability & Offending. Dale C & Storey L (Eds.) Nursing Practice International
Watson, S, Calam, RM and Jimmieson, P. (2002) Can computers help in assessing children's postoperative pain? Initial validation of a computer assisted interview. European Journal of Anaesthesiology 19,1-7.
Calam, RM, Jimmieson, P, Cox, AD, Glasgow, DV and Groth Larsen, S (2000). Can computer-based assessment help us understand children’s pain? European Journal of Anaesthesiology, 17, 284-288.
In My Shoes incorporates the computer assisted version of SAGE, a special interview technique referred to in: Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Guidance for Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses, including Children, 2002 page 50 para 2.143
What are the hardware requirements?
You need a laptop produced within the last 5 years and running Mac and/or Windows operating systems.
What sort of Mac laptop?
It must run Mac OS X (10.7 or later).
What sort of Windows laptop?
It must run Windows 7, up to Windows 10. You must have permissions to install software on it (though it may be possible to arrange for this to be done in advance), and you must be able to save documents generated by In My Shoes. The laptop must be able to play sounds either through built in or attached speakers, or headphones and have a screen that can display at a resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
