By Travis Ballard Esq. In order to understand the reliability and validity of testimony and statements made by children, one must first understand memory and how children recall. Memory can be broken down into three different types of memory, either episodic, somatic or procedural.
Episodic memory is memory where children are, in fact, remembering events.
Somatic memory is of concept, such as on a cold morning there would be ice. Procedural memories are things which children learn as to how do we do things, such as riding a bike. In dealing with procedural memories one must be concerned with whether or not learning an activity interferes with what is reported as learned in a different activity. When we're dealing with allegations which relate to sex abuse cases we are generally dealing with episodic memory, that is memory for actual events. Procedures which are utilized by the mind in creating memory are threefold.