Teach To Talk® Teach first. Then ask.
A Human-Centered Method for Investigative Interviewing
“Before I ask a person for an important account, I teach them how the conversation will work and verify that they can apply what I taught them.”
Joseph R. Auriemma, Jr., Chapter 1
The complete Teach To Talk method in one book: how to prepare the person to answer, protect the first account, develop and test it fairly, and return it accurately, with the Adaptive Strategies Compass™ to tell the interviewer which way to turn when the conversation struggles.
One method. Eight directions.
“Most interviewers prepare to ask questions. Far fewer prepare the person to answer them.”Joseph R. Auriemma, Jr., Chapter 1
Teach To Talk is the complete interviewing method presented in the book. It begins with preparing the person, and it continues through developing, examining, and returning the account. The same standard applies to victims, witnesses, and suspects. As Joe puts it, role changes the safeguards, not the standard.
Teach the person how to give an account
The opening brings the unspoken rules into the open: what useful detail means, how to keep what they experienced separate from what they worked out or learned later, that an estimate should be labeled as one, that “I don’t know” is acceptable, and that correcting the interviewer is expected.
The Pen Standard lets the person practice on a pen, where nothing is at stake, before they speak about what is.
The Adaptive Strategies Compass
The Compass is the navigation tool inside Teach To Talk. When answers shrink, rapport slips, a topic goes quiet, or the account collides with the evidence, the “Which way?” check asks what is actually causing the problem, in priority order.
The interviewer checks their own behavior before concluding the person is unwilling, then decides whether to stay, shift, stack, or stop.
One direction per chapter
Chapters 3 through 10 each teach one of the eight directions: Teach, Listen, Retrieve, Clarify, Adapt, Re-engage, Test, and Route. Each new tool appears only when its direction needs it.
The directions have no fixed order. The interviewer moves among them as the conversation requires and returns to one as often as needed.
A Teach To Talk account protects six qualities
Where to find each direction.
The book’s own chapter map. Joe recommends reading Chapters 1 and 2 first, then Chapters 3 through 10 in order the first time through. The back of the book holds the references for when you are ready to practice, teach, evaluate, or implement the method more formally.
- 1Teach First, Then AskThe method, the shared standard, and why one method serves every role.
- 2The Adaptive Strategies CompassThe eight directions, the “Which way?” check, and the four decisions: stay, shift, stack, stop.
- 3TeachThe guided introduction, the Pen Standard, and the readiness check.
- 4ListenProtecting the first account: open invitations, the pause, jot notes, and the correctable summary.
- 5RetrieveDeveloping detail without supplying it: follow-up questions, the Pen Contrast, and routes into memory.
- 6ClarifyMeaning, source, certainty, and apparent differences, settled before anything is tested.
- 7AdaptRapport, observation, the communication baseline, and DISC style reading.
- 8Re-engageBarriers to willingness, repair, boundaries, and knowing when to stop.
- 9TestComparing the account with evidence: the Difference Audit, the Fair Challenge Test, and the Disclosure Ladder.
- 10RoutePlanning the interview and re-routing the conversation.
- 11Return the AccountClosing accurately with the RETURN Sequence.
- 12Put the Compass to WorkPractice, review, and the complete Casey rehearsal.
Extends the individual practice to coaching, review, and adoption across a team.
A proposal for how the method can be independently evaluated, including results that narrow or contradict it.
A practical guide that expands the Adapt direction, starting from observable communication.
The case exchanges brought together in interview order, from planning to close.
The origin, research status, and limits of each named tool, and whether it is Joe’s or credited to others.
The book’s named vocabulary, each term marked as external, author-created, adapted, or a book-use term.
A brief reminder of the Adaptive Strategies Compass to keep at hand while you practice.
8:42 p.m. Thursday.
An access record shows Casey’s assigned credential opening a restricted records-room door at 8:42 p.m. on Thursday. The record gives the interviewer a reason to ask questions. It does not say who carried the credential or what happened inside the room.
“It looks like a narrow question about access. It turns out to be much more than that, and each direction of the method has to do its share of the work before the truth is on the record.”Joseph R. Auriemma, Jr., Chapter 1
Each chapter shows the part of the Casey interview that teaches its direction. Chapter 4 presents the complete first account, Chapter 12 uses the case for practice, and Appendix D runs the whole interview in order. Casey is a fictional teaching case.
- Door
- Restricted records room
- Day
- Thursday
- Time
- 8:42 p.m.
- Credential
- Assigned to Casey
- Carried by
- Not stated in the record
- Inside
- Not stated in the record
For anyone whose work depends on an account.
The same standard serves every interview where the truth matters, from a victim or witness who wants to help to a person determined to conceal it.
“This book is designed to help you begin practicing Teach To Talk without attending one of my courses. It does not confer legal authority or professional competence in the specialized methods it discusses.”Joseph R. Auriemma, Jr., Chapter 1
The book stands on its own. When a unit or team wants to rehearse the method with live feedback, ASC’s courses teach the same Teach To Talk method in the room.
Explore ASC TrainingClear about what is whose.
It separates what Joe developed from what he credits. The Research Lineage and Original Contribution Ledger lists each named tool, the direction it serves, and its origin. Established methods, such as the Cognitive Interview developed by Ronald Fisher and R. Edward Geiselman, Strategic Use of Evidence developed by Pär Anders Granhag, Maria Hartwig, and colleagues, and the PEACE framework developed in England and Wales, remain the work of their originators.
It is plain about what is not yet validated. Teach To Talk and the Adaptive Strategies Compass are practitioner-developed and research-informed. The integrated method has not been independently validated, and placing a researched method inside it does not transfer that research to the whole.
It keeps the opening honest about its limits. Teaching the task can fix a misunderstanding about what is being asked. In Joe’s words, it “cannot create a memory or establish honesty.” Observation is used to manage the conversation, never to judge truthfulness.
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Written from the interview room
Joseph R. Auriemma, Jr. spent 24 years with the New York State Police, including 6.5 years as a Senior Investigator in the Major Crimes Unit, and served as a Lead Instructor at the New York State Police Academy. He first developed and named Teach To Talk in 2016, while serving with the State Police, and now teaches it through Advanced Strategic Communications to investigators, HR and workplace investigators, educators, and attorneys.
“I was taught to chase confessions. I no longer accept that as the measure of a good interviewer.”
Teach first. Then ask.
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