Communication
Task 1
203 3.2 Hannah doesn’t want to go into assembly. You need to find out why and then explain to the class teacher. Describe the differences between your communication with the child and the class teacher.

Task 2
203 3.3, 3.4
Identify different communication difficulties

Describe how you would adapt your communication to meet these different needs

Physical Impairment

This can be a barrier whether they are Hearing, Sight or Speech impaired. You would need to adapt your communication style appropriately for each individual child or young person.

If the child or young person has a hearing impairment you would perhaps need to have more face to face communication to enable them to lip read or if you can use sign language or possibly you would use more written/text/image style communication.

If the person has some sort of sight impairment you may need to be more vocal in your communication or need special equipment for example Braille or recordings/computers.

If the person has speech impairment such as Fluency issues then you may need to be more patient when waiting for responses from the child or young person. You must refrain from completing their sentences or guessing what they are trying to say as this may cause them distress and upset them rather than help.

Due to these types of barriers children may fall behind in their school work and find themselves inept at expressing their thoughts and ideas to others in the classroom/group environment so a one to one approach may also be more appropriate for each of the above to encourage and improve confidence in communications.

Psychological Barriers

This may affect how communication is received for example if a child is stressed or upset they may be preoccupied and not as receptive to what you are communicating rather than if they are not stressed or upset. Or if they are angry then they may find it easy to say things that they may later regret or misinterpret what you are saying.

If you have established that a child is upset, angry or stressed it would be wise to remove the child from the classroom environment and sit down with them face to face and using eye contact and an emphatic tone of voice to establish what is wrong. You may take notes and consistently clarify and question the child to show that you are listening and want to resolve the issue before you put them back into the learning environment.

Allowing time to calm down and to feel back to their normal happy selves. If they are still in the upset, angry or stressed state then they may disrupt your communication with the rest of the classroom and unbalance that environment.

Cultural Differences

Different Cultures whether they be social or race, can hinder communication if two cultures clash. It is important to find a common ground to work from. It is important that if you have a child or young person who is culturally different that you are aware of these and commit to some sort of plan about how you would adapt your communication styles to efficiently resolve any issues.

For example in some cultures eye contact can be considered rude. You would ensure that you limit your eye contact but also you would ensure that the child is aware that it is socially acceptable to have eye contact in the learning environment.

If there is a lack of eye contact then the child or young person may miss out on some non-verbal communication such as facial expressions by raising eyebrows which is a Teacher questioning if the child or young person has fully understood. You may need to adjust your communications with the child by asking verbally if they have understood.

Environmental Barriers

There are many environmental barriers that we face when it comes to communications with a child or young person in a school environment.

This may be noise barriers. For example Internal Noise - internal self- talking. The child would be preoccupied thinking about issues at