Volume 81 — North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports

1. Parent and Child 6.3 — custody hearing — hearsay evidence — children's statements to grandmother Defendant could not complain that the trial court in a custody hearing committed prejudicial error by admitting hearsay evidence, since defendant did not technically preserve an objection to the admission of the evidence; statements by a grandmother as to what the children in question had told her were in many cases the same as statements made by the children to a psychologist, and these statements were admissible as statements made to a psychologist for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment; and the mere admission of incompetent hearsay evidence over proper objection does not require reversal, rather, defendant must show some prejudice, which she failed to do. 2. Parent and Child 6.3 — modification of child custody — reliance on record generated in original hearing In a hearing on a motion for modification of child custody, the trial court was not required to start with a "clean slate" but could in fact rely on the record generated in the original custody hearing. 3. Parent and Child 6.3 — modification of child custody — changed circumstances Evidence was sufficient to support the trial court's finding that changed circumstances justified a modification of child custody where the evidence tended to show that custody had previously been awarded to the mother; the attitude of the children toward their mother had changed; a psychologist who had examined the children testified that the children's behavior had "deteriorated" and become dramatically worse in the past few months and that the children were expressing distress over their situation with their mother; the mother allowed a boyfriend to live in her home; the psychologist testified that the deterioration in the children's behavior corresponded with the boyfriend's involvement with their mother; in light of a prior instance of sexual abuse by one of the mother's boyfriends and the court's express instruction that the mother not bring dates to the same residence with the children, the mother's admission necessarily was a substantial change of circumstance; the court found that the father had improved after finding him totally uninvolved at the time of the prior order; and the court found that the mother failed to understand the needs of the children.