Implicación nutricional y sanitaria de la oxidación de los esteroles

In the following excerpt participant B7 discusses her observations of children interpreting in domains other than social work, in which the child could be understood as the subject of the encounter as well as the mouthpiece for parent and professional.

B7: … we go to school meetings and they are sitting there and the child is talking to the therapist and interpreting to the mum what the therapist is saying. Same with teachers; so whatever the teacher () or the care person may be able to say directly to the parent, gets lost in how in the way the child interprets it, and then again IT IS about the child and you wonder how, what the child is saying you know: … the therapist are saying, you know ‘this is what I want the child to work on’ and ‘this is what I think is the problem’, or the teacher is saying: ‘this is () the problem at school’ or ‘this is why he doesn’t’ () erm ‘he’s not getting on with this teacher, that teacher’. ↑You wonder how that child feels when he’s saying that to the parents.

Echoing other research participants, B7 raised concern about accuracy, particularly how meaning may be lost through the process of the child interpreting, and that children are not considered to be neutral. It is important to identify the rhetorical devices the participant employs to discuss this issue. B7 alludes to the problematic nature of child interpreters through disassociation; she speaks as an onlooker of neighbouring professionals and their use of child interpreters. This gives her space to identify the problematic nature of child

interpreting and relieves her of the contradictory practice she earlier identified. She uses this positioning as a leverage to purport the inappropriate nature of child interpreting, by way of distancing herself. This relates to research from White and Featherstone (2005) who

demonstrated how social workers in a multiagency setting pointed out the inadequacy of other professions. The authors argue that this served as a way of ‘accomplishing being a

‘professional’ and legitimating one’s role alongside similar occupations’ (p.210). Particularly since the participant later stated in the interview that she uses children to interpret. In the final line the participant adopts an emotive stance by appealing to the vulnerability of the passive child. This presents B7 as a social worker that has a nuanced understanding of the complexities of children interpreting in a social work practice.

140 The following excerpt highlights how the participant uses her professional judgement in her decision to use children to interpret, whilst being aware of the complications.

B7: …you ARE expected to use professionals [to interpret for families LEP]. But I think in cases… when you - you have to resort to using [the child], you know when you don’t have any other option. It is something that has happened, it it’s hard to avoid it. It’s at - at least after, you do get something rather than nothing.

In the final line, the participant positions child interpreting as an informal arrangement in the face of service deficiencies. The participant states that child interpreters are a useful ad-hoc tool, however they are deficient, in relation to their child status and inferiority in comparison to formal interpreters. This outlook positions informal interpreting provision as a commodity. Although the child possesses capacity by virtue of his/her linguistic proficiency, the child’s capacity to interpret is considered as a tool and may be used by social workers to enable and facilitate dialogue. The participant considers the complexities of children interpreting as she states: ‘you do get something rather than nothing’. This indicates that although child

interpreting is not desirable practice, it provides a choice.

The following excerpt alludes to some of the benefits of child interpreting. Participant M8 refers to the aforementioned family at the start of this chapter, to explain how the act of a child interpreting inadvertently led a child to reveal important information to the social worker about domestic violence, perpetrated by the father towards the mother.

R: so can you tell me about how the children were used as interpreters?

M8: …the daughter was the older of the two and she um at times did () you know kind of made her mum’s wishes and views known, >a lot of time< when dad wasn’t around because he was not always there uh and she would take the opportunity to kind of you know convey to me how her mother felt…

This excerpt indicates that the child makes her mothers’ wishes known, however it is not clear if this is done verbatim, or even if her mother was aware of this. In light of this, it could be considered that this example illuminates how the child interprets by presenting the views of

141 her mother. The participant states how the child offers an alternative and broader

understanding of the family situation and this information is used to add weight to the social worker’s concerns, particularly the mother's denial of domestic violence. The excerpt shows how the child and social worker meet at certain times to talk about the family situation, and to avoid her English-speaking father, thus showing that the social worker and child navigate space, in cognisance of each other’s language proficiency. In this context, it appears that the child’s mother is strategically excluded from conversations due to her English language proficiency, while the child’s English language proficiency is perceived as a vehicle to reveal insight into the family situation. This places the child in an irresolute position, as her dual linguistic proficiency is bifurcated as a resource and deficiency. It is a resource in the context of being able to offer insight into her family’s situation, and a deficiency since this capacity gives her some responsibility to speak about her mother’s situation, in the awareness that her mother could not speak directly to the social worker. In this case, although the social worker considers that interpreting disturbs a child’s ‘natural’ role, as stated earlier in the chapter, she is aware of the importance for the child to share her understanding of the domestic violence in the family.

While the benefits of the child presenting her mother’s predicament are realised by the

participant, there is concern that the child is not a legitimate interpreter and resultantly should not worry about ‘adult problems'. There is an underlying paradox here however, as it appears that the child’s interpreting assisted in the social workers’ understanding of the family

situation, without which she would not have known the full extent of the family’s

predicament. While the participant acknowledges the insight that the interpreting brought to the family situation, she acknowledges this contradiction. In order to alleviate this difficulty, the participant said she took a number of precautions, she ensured that information was verified with a professional interpreter and arranged for formal interpreters in official

meetings. The participant managed the contradictions of using children to interpret by taking a number of measures, this included: asking the child if they would be willing to interpret and checking in with the child, during and after the interpreting, to consider their feelings and to see whether they were willing to continue. These examples illuminate the co-production of interpreting, since the outputs are related to the social worker and the service user. Moreover, this finding suggests that thresholds in relation to children interpreting in social work are flexible, since, with appropriate management, child interpreting may have the potential to aid and benefit social work involvement.

142 The preceding sections have outlined three key findings: first the problematic nature of

children interpreting. Second, that child interpreters may be used as an informal resource to facilitate intervention and third, that social workers manage children who interpret in

accordance with thresholds informed by the social worker’s assessment of the child’s character and perceptions about their capacity to interpret.