Home Court Advantage DVD

Court Preparation For Children

Pamphlets, handouts, and coloring books struggle to reach children in an uneasy time as they prepare for court. This DVD, developed by Tec-Masters, Inc., in conjunction with the National Children's Advocacy Center, animates these tools and places them literally in the palm of the child's hand. The TV remote control navigates through an engaging, interactive, non-linear instructional DVD designed to put children at ease in an upcoming courtroom situation.

"The National Children's Advocacy Center is proud to partner with Tec-Master's Inc. in developing this highly informative DVD for child abuse professionals. Preparing children to testify in court is one of the most difficult aspects of our work, and this DVD provides an outstanding mechanism for addressing this challenge. This useful tool will enable children to feel more confident with the courtroom and court process while allowing at least part of this preparation to occur in a safe and comforting environment for the child."
Chris Newlin
Executive Director
National Children's Advocacy Center

The primary audience for the DVD is child sexual abuse victims who may have to appear in court to testify against their abusers. A secondary audience who will benefit from this program is non-offending family members or guardians of the child victim. Additionally, court officials, therapists, social workers, victims' advocates, and courtroom participants may utilize this DVD to help prepare children for court testimony.

As a case is sent forward for prosecution and the court date draws nearer, a child-victim may, understandably, exhibit signs of increasing trauma simply due to the unknown aspect of having to appear in court. The objective of this program is to attempt to alleviate that part of the trauma associated with the unknown by developing a child-focused training vehicle which will allow the child to take a virtual tour of a courtroom. During this tour, s/he will receive a brief introduction to the various people s/he may encounter during the trial, and, through the words of the courtroom participants themselves, an explanation of why each one is there and what they will be doing.

Presenting this information in DVD format sets the child in a safe and familiar environment, before moving into an actual courtroom, further relaxing the learning aspect through a medium with which the child is already so familiar.

In addition to the tour itself, the DVD contains a review section, explanations of terms or words that the child may encounter in the courtroom, and answers to questions that child-victims frequently ask about testifying in court. In the review section, an icon representing each of the various people the child may encounter during the trial (judge, clerk, baliff, court reporter, prosecutor, defense attorney, etc.) may be clicked on individually and that person will explain what his or her function is in the courtroom. The non-linear format of the DVD allows the child to access the information in any order desired.

Please view the NCAC site for purchase of this DVD.
http://www.nationalcac.org

Multimedia Technology
POC: John Bramblett • 256.721.6213