Monica Hanzik

June 17, 2008

Clinical Interview

For this assignment I interviewed Wyatt, an 11 year old boy that just finished up 5^th grade. I interviewed Wyatt in between video games with his cousin, Spencer, so he mentions him during the interview. I wanted to see what types of misconceptions Wyatt had about fingerprints and their use. His experiences had shaped his knowledge on fingerprints and I wanted to see how his observations of daily life formed his opinions about the importance of fingerprints. Students may often be confused about the reason we have fingerprints along with the classification of prints. The interview went as followed.

Self: So Wyatt tell me what you know about fingerprints?

Wyatt: Well they come from your fingers, and no two pairs are the same. (Looks at fingers) And there are different types of fingerprints.

Self: What would make a fingerprint different? What are some of those types?

Wyatt: Well, they have different markings.

Self: Can you explain or maybe draw some of those marking?

Wyatt: I can try. (Draws fingerprint) The lines make them different. Spencer has different fingerprints then I do.

Self: How could I tell Spencer’s fingerprints from yours?

Wyatt: You take a fingerprint test and look for different swirls.

Self: Test? What kind of test do you give for fingerprints?

Wyatt: Well this is what I had to do, you have to put your thumb in ink. And then you have a white piece of paper. Then you push your thumb on the white paper after it has ink on it.

Self: Just your thumb?

Wyatt: Yeah that’s all they need.

Self: Do you think twins have the same fingerprints?

Wyatt: Well yes, because they have the same chromosome.

Self: What about your brother? You are not twins. Do you two have the same?

Wyatt: Maybe some, but not all like twins.

Self: So Wyatt, why do we even have fingerprints?

Wyatt: Because God gave them to us. And I think the government uses them to identify us.

Self: When would the government want to identify you Wyatt?

Wyatt: To see if you are bad, like if you kill someone.

Self: So what if you had a twin, and they were bad and had killed someone. How would they know which twin killed the person? I mean if you have the same prints, how would they know who the killer is.

Wyatt: Well I don’t know. Maybe they don’t have the same prints.

Spencer: No they don’t. They have the same DNA but not the same prints.

Self: Thank you Spencer. So do you have toe prints Wyatt?

Wyatt: Your big toe does, but I don’t think the other ones do because they are too little.

Although Wyatt may have seemed distracted by the video games while I interviewed him, I was surprised how much he wanted to talk about fingerprints. During the interview I wanted to check if Wyatt understood why we have fingerprints and how to classify them. I think that Wyatt had a good understanding of fingerprints. He often looked at his fingers at the beginning of the interview. This allows me to think that he was using his surroundings to answer some of the questions. If Wyatt was in my classroom I would want to make sure that he had a chance to produce his own classification system for fingerprints. This would help him to observe and analyze the different prints. Wyatt was aware that all fingerprints are different, but was not able to go into detail about how they are different. He knew there were different groups, but not the details that made these groups different. After Wyatt created his own classification system, I would then introduce the Standard classification system.