203
Supporting teaching and learning in schools L2

Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults

Unit 203
Assignment 1: Communication
Aida Virsiliene

To be able to live in this world and to enjoy it, also for many other reasons communication is a very important thing. Without it we would be missing out on many things, couldn’t develop morally, psychologically, emotionally etc. Everybody knows that communication with others is important but not everybody realises that they need to learn HOW to communicate. There are different ways of conveying and receiving information: verbally, non-verbally, formally and informally. Communication is described as the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behaviour. Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender. When a receiver understands what the sender is saying – we call that process an effective communication. Only communicating effectively we can expect to form respectful, professional relationships with others. Some people say that the most important rule of effective communication is to meet the other person’s needs, not ours. When communicating we need to remember that there are main differences between communicating with adults and communicating with children and young people. Communication with children needs to be clear, concise and appropriate to their age, needs, abilities. We can do that by using words and phrases they will understand. Also when communicating with children important aspects are: active listening to children; positive response; asking and answering questions to prompt responses and check understanding; adapt communication to their language; concentrate what child is saying; use not only verbal but non verbal communication skills like smile, nodding, eye contact etc.; praise and encouragement; giving support. Communicating with adult it is recommended to: use language that will be understood; maintain professionalism and support to other adult; make an eye contact and use other non-verbal skills; respect other ideas even if not sure about them. It is very important to avoid assumptions about adults (backgrounds); summarise and confirm key points to ensure that we are clear on what’s happening; resolve areas of poor communication by discussing them; comply with polices for confidentiality, sharing information and data protection.

We, adults, always need to think about how we communicate with others as one way in which children learn is by watching and copying others.
Children learn how to behave, react to others and manage their feelings from the adults around them. It is therefore important that from birth children are given the best start in life with the example of “Positive Role Models”. A child’s first and most important role model is their parents. As a child grows and comes into contact with more people - grandparents, other family members and friends they will all play an important part in setting good examples for the child to follow and continue to do so through out their life. At some point they may also look for inspiration to other role models such as policemen, doctors, firemen, sports men, entertainers, etc., whose perceived behaviours can have a direct effect on others’, young or old, actual behaviours. When we realise how to communicate with adults and children we need to think about good communication. It is very difficult to communicate well when someone