Shc_21__Introduction_to_Communication_on_Health,_Social_Care_or_Children’s_and_Young_People’s_Settings

In this section we look at how effective communication is vital when working with children and young people. communication is a crucial part of a child's or young person's life. Therefore anyone working within a setting wear children and young people are involved need to have good communication skills and be able to understand how to communicate with children and young people in order to understand what they mean. Task 1: There are many reasons people communicate;  To express needs  To share ideas and information  To reassure  To express feelings  To build relationships  Socialise  To ask questions  To share experiences Communication is used in order to establish and maintain relationships with other people or children. Communication is used to give and receive information and instructions. Communication is used to help people to understand and to be understood by others and is also used to share opinions, knowledge, feelings and emotions, to give encouragement and show others are valued. Communication is an essential aspect a care worker can use to meet the needs of a child or children. It is a basic requirement of any job role in working with children and young people and their families but also other members of staff on a daily basis. Communicating with other staff members ensures an effective team working together and consistent care of the children and young people. Communication also ensures all health and safety issues are reported and spotted. Individually children and young people will communicate with carers to express their needs and preferences and to make sure they are met. Effective communication is a central part of the work that happens in the care setting. A developed range of communication skills and to be able to use them effectively to carry out the various aspects of your work role. The need to be able to communicate effectively with children, their parents and your colleagues as well as colleagues from other agencies. Effective communication is vital in establishing effective relationships in the work place setting. It will allow you to gain support from your colleagues and to provide them with the necessary support in times of stress and difficulty in the work place. People who work in the childcare setting are expected to be able to communicate effectively with the children however this is not always easy or straightforward. Communication with the children is more likely to be effective if you: ▶ get the child’s attention before you start talking ▶ make eye contact at the child’s level ▶ use simple age-appropriate language, short sentences and a friendly tone of voice ▶ give the child time to understand what you are saying and enough time to respond ▶ be patient and attentive when a child is talking to you, giving them time to express themselves ▶ don’t rush the child or interrupt to speed things up ▶ listen carefully and use simple questions to clarify what the child is telling you ▶ be aware of your own body language and take note of what the child’s body language is communicating ▶ use your facial expression in an active, positive way to support what you are saying and as a way of responding to what the child is saying to you ▶ use pictures, colourful posters or displays to express ideas or to communicate information in a way that is easy to understand. These points above show how to effectively communicate with children. Effective communication is very important with children as they need help to understand what to do and how to do it. Effective communication depends on several aspects such as body language and language used in communication with the child as it needs to be at the correct level for them to be able to understand. Another form of effective communication could be if a child has health problems and needs special food or medication while at school, therefore effective communication is vital as it regards the health of the child. For example a child who has a special dietary requirement will need information passed between different people in order to get the right dietary requirements. Parent/carer and Manager and EYW (Key worker) The information that will be passed between these people is to allow the key worker a good understanding the problem fully and how it will be managed and treated within the school/nursery. This information is important but needs to treat confidentially. The information could vary with each problem but would mainly consist of type of problem, how it is managed and treated, what to do if a reaction occurs and contact information. • Key worker and other members of the team This would be wear the main key worker would relay Curtin information about the child’s problem within realistic in what the other members of the team do with the child etc • Key worker and children This is where the key worker would briefly explain to the other children why the specific child may have to have a specific diet or help with eating. This will allow the other children to learn about health problems or that even though the child has a special diet they are still the same as the other children. One way of effective communication with children is to have pictures to help the associate different activities and jobs for example a pictorial timetable of the day see an example below. The timetable shows pictures of each type of activity Register, Table top play, Snacks, Singing, Story time, Outdoor play, Toileting and Painting. This helps the child or young person understand what is happening in the day and when. The pictures work well if the child or young person has special needs, or lack of communications skills such as reading. Overall effective communication is vital as it affects all of the different aspects of the work with children in the work place and knowing how to communicate in the correct way is a vital part of working with children in order for them to understand. Observing individual reactions to communication is important to take into account how each individual is feeling and what they want to say as this could affect how people react in conservation. This can be carefully observed by a variety of reactions. Some adults or children are confident enough to express themselves verbally, but for some children or adults it may only be able to gauge their response by observing their facial expressions, body language or what they do not say. Therefore it is important that as a practitioner you develop the skills to ‘read’ children and adults by understanding their non-verbal as well as verbal reactions. Below are examples of typical non-verbal behaviour Facial expressions – smiling, winking, frowning, eye contact, raising and eyebrows Body language – Arms crossed tightly over chest, shrugging, separated arms and looking elsewhere Gestures – Pointing, Nodding, pointing, shaking head, nudging head,waving and moving hands to a shape e.g. square, rabbit This is important as each individual is different and has different needs in the way they can express themselves. But in order to be fully understood by the other person body language needs to be understood and know how to read it to fully understand the person. Observing body language allows the practitioner to be able to understand how the child or young person is feeling and how to help them to express how they are feeling so they can feel like they are understood.