Name: Rodrigo Leão Salles Subject: Health and Social care Date: 15/11/13

Welcome to our Health and Social centre, here you’re going to learn how to communicate verbally and non-verbally in different situations and when dealing with different people and their disabilities, also you’ll be able to decide what are the advantages and disadvantages of the techniques used to successfully communicate with others and more!

First of all let’s start with verbal communication and the effective skills you must have and use are:
1. Non- discriminatory language – When talking to a foreign or someone with different features, do not use words that could possibly be considered offensive or inappropriate, such as retard with someone who’s got difficulty in learning in a hospital or school.
2. Selection of appropriate language- Do not use slang or local words to communicate with others, if you do there’s a high chance of you being misunderstood, mostly if you’re communicating with a group, for instance when talking to a group of staff about changes on the patients rooms, you can talk informally to a group of friends, but always talk formally with others.
3. Clear speech- When talking to anyone, being one-to one communication or group communication it’s crucial to be clearly heard, do not talk mumbling or too fast , if you’re passing instructions to doctors about a patient or to someone who’s got learning or understanding difficulties, it’s extremely necessary to make sure you’re understood by others around you.
4. Pace and tone- The velocity which you’re talking and the pitch of your voice, this factors of verbal communication affects the people around you, a good example is when talking to people with hearing impairments or the young adults which abide in our centre (group communication), if you talk too fast and quietly, they won’t be able to understand you and if you talk too loudly, it can stress or scare them, or even cause pain to their ears.
5. Active listening skills- Probably when the most important skills to have and use, not just in Health and Social care environment but in life, you can use all the skills above to be understood by others but you have to make sure you are understanding what others are saying, mostly when dealing with people that have problems in learning and comprehending the world around them, sometimes they need a lot time just to express themselves.

6. Age appropriate language- Use different vocabulary when talking to people with different ages, for instance you can’t use intellectual words when communicating verbally with a child or someone with the mentality of a child, but you’re not going to talk with a cute voice or with poor vocabulary when having a conversation with a nurse in her 30s that.

Even though we communicate most of the times verbally, about 68% of the time we communicate by non-verbal communication skills, those skills are:
1. Posture- The way you sit or stand or even move can affect and send messages to others, for instance when shaking your head while someone else is talking might indicate that you agree or disagree with what they’re saying, of course when talking to a patient in distress, waving your arms can stress them even more, because waving your arms can show excitement, that’s the last thing they want to see from you. Also posture is really important in a one-to-one conversation and essential in a group conversation, for example do not keep moving around the room you’re at, in a one-to-one conversation, it may be distracting and misleading.
2. Facial expression- Your face is able to convey countless emotions without saying a word, expressions that show sadness, happiness, etc are well known across the globe, for example do not smile when someone is talking about something sad, also make sure to notice facial expressions in your patients to decide how you’ll approach and talk to them, however, facial expression is not really