Hazards In Interviewing Children
There are a number of hazards which will be encountered if you interview children between the ages of 4 and 10 years. Depending upon the experience and ability of the child, the difficulties may remain after the age of 10.

The tendency to say 'Yes'. Very young children are unwilling to assert themselves and to contradict an adult. They will, therefore, answer questions in any way they think you want them answered. Later, of course, children in the early teenage years may delight in confusing adults, which produces a different problem of interpretation. This means that you have to guard very closely against giving any hint of what you expect them to say. You have to encourage them to disclose their own opinion and this may take many reassurances that you want to know what they think, you want their own ideas, and that there are no right answers. Anything that looks like a test will either silence them or trigger things they know adults want to hear. There is also a strong 'acquiescence response' bias: children will tend to say 'yes', irrespective of the question, if they are anxious to please. So you should try to pose questions which are not open to yes or no responses. For instance, 'Did you like that?', would become, 'What did you think about that?'

A 'Don't know' response must be treated cautiously. Never base a conclusion on 'Don't knows', especially one which asserts that children don't know.

Literal interpretations. Young children interpret questions literally. You have to make sure that the questions are clear. For instance, they should not include similes: for example, the answer to 'How do you think James showed that he was as powerful as a lion?' would tell you more about what the child thought about lions than about James.

Distractions. Children pay attention to unexpected details both in the interview