title: Question use in child mental health assessments and the challenges of listening to families.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The mental health assessment is a fundamental aspect of clinical practice and central to this is the use of questions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the frequency and type of questions utilised within a child mental health assessment.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data consisted of 28 naturally occurring assessments from a UK child and adolescent mental health service. Data were analysed using quantitative and qualitative content analysis to determine frequencies and question type.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results indicated a total of 9086 questions in 41 h across the 28 clinical encounters. This equated to a mean of 3.7 questions per minute. Four types of questions were identified; yes-no interrogatives,wh-prefaced questions, declarative questions and tag questions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current format of questioning may impede the opportunity for families to fully express their particular concerns and this has implications for service delivery and training.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  None.
  © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
authors.affiliation: , BSc, MA, MSC, PhD, PGCAPHE.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
authors.affiliation: , BSc, MB, SHB, MRCPsych, The Greenwood Institute of Child Health, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: Khalid
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karim
authors.affiliation: , BSc, PhD, DClinPsy, University of Chester, Chester, UK.
authors.forename: Nikki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kiyimba