Question 1 (Weighting: 0)
Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults
The word count is there for guidance purposes only.
Explain why effective communication is important in developing positive relationships with:
• Children
• Young people
• Adults
Positive relationships are built with and through effective communication and heavily rely on this. The principles of effective communication involve receiving and giving appropriate feedback, listening and understanding and also showing respect. Another important precept is to connect with people and engage with them. Its core principles must be observed to build a successful relationship. Once these principles are followed and fully understood, effective communication can be the foundation for healthy and positive relationships with all groups. Otherwise the abilities for interpretation are compromised and the exchange of ideas and information is misleading, incomplete or lost. When communication breaks down it can lead to negative feelings; this jeopardises the development of positive relationships, regardless of age group.
Communication should be appropriate to the level of development, needs, environmental situations and personal circumstances of the person involved, whether it is a child or an adult.
Children need to clearly understand what is expected from them so effective communication is important to not make them confused. It is also the adults’ responsibility to make sure they do understand. If, for example, adults tell them to behave in a certain way and forget to do so themselves a conflictive message is sent out and they will struggle to learn what is acceptable or not and this includes verbal and non-verbal language.
The same issue is true to young people; the adult must make sure the messages are clear and must be aware that his/her behaviour will be mimicked. However, this group is especially sensitive to this because they are more mature to challenge and question someone’s behaviour. Therefore they can interpret the contradiction as disregard or lack of respect, making it tougher to connect and engage with them.
Active listening is the probably the best way to guarantee effective communication with adults. Normally they tend to not check if they are fully understood or understand – there is a break-down in the two-way process of communication. This can lead to misunderstandings and bad feelings and the longer they persist the more difficult it is to overcome them. Therefore adults must make sure they are actively listening to each other because they are more likely to provide positive support for children and school staff when communication is effective, thus benefiting pupils.
Question 2 (Weighting: 0)
Explain the principles of relationship building with:
Children
Young people
Adults
[200 words]

The aim of building positive relationships is to make people comfortable in our company. Therefore they are more willing to engage and communicating effectively as a result. There are vital principles to relationship building with children, young people and adults. Although all these principles should be applied to everyone they are especially sensitive to the particular groups.

Children:
- Be clear. It is crucial that you make sure they are listening and understand what has been said. Particularly with children it is a good idea to ask them to repeat back what they were told
- Listen to them. Make sure you are prepared to listen and show interest in what they are saying. This will make them more willing to communicate
- Remember individual issues; e.g. a child’s birthday or if parents are going through personal problems. They feel appreciated and thus feel more comfortable and trusting around carers
- Remember the SPECIAL fundaments, all children need security, praise, encouragement, communication, interaction, acceptance and love
Young People:
- Be considerate, understand and take into account