SHC 3.1 Promote communication in heath social care or children’s and young people’s settings

Effective communication is vital to a good working practice. Without good communication we wouldn’t be able to continue the children’s learning progression as you would be unable to plan appropriately as you would not be able to share information with parents.
Delivering a message or instruction is as important as receiving it. The person delivering the message needs to focus on a number of factors like how their body language can be perceived, the tone of their voice and being able to give the right amount of time for the message to be understood and questions asked if not fully understood.
Communication is needed for a variety of reasons like asking questions and gathering information “do we have anymore tissues?” And “When is the invoice due?” We would then communicate to provide the information “The tissues are kept in the cupboard” or “It’s due by the 15th July”. We can also portray information through written forms like accident forms, tracker books and risk assessment forms as well as pictures and maps. We also communicate to be social and share emotions, for example sadness and joy can both be expressed through tears and can be easily confused if you cannot communicate through speech or body language. We also communicate to get others round to your way of thinking, which is useful in advertising as slogans become common place spreading brand name E.g. “Every little helps” “beans means Heinz” and “just do it”. We can also communicate through non textual noises so if we were trying to placate a crying child we would say Shhh or if we were looking at photo’s we might say Ahhh.
In our modern society we have many ways to communicate Email, phones, mobile phones, and Skype. Although these forms of communication can be problematic as the message can be lost in translation as there is no non-verbal communication like voice tone, body language or eye contact. Meaning a text message or Email might be interpreted in many different ways as you cannot convey tone. Another example of this would be when having a telephone conversation it is harder to assess the importance of the message as you can’t see the other persons facial expression, body language or gestures that would empathise the importance of their views . a common saying is “actions speak louder than words” and this is intrinsic part of daily life for example when talking to somebody we expect eye contact to be made and kept to show you have their full concentration and understanding, if somebody avoids eye contact and looks away while you speak to them it can feel disrespectful and that your views are unimportant, which can lead to hostilities.
Pitching your conversation to the right audience is also important as using complicated and technical language when it is not needed would make you look contrived and alienate you from the people you’re speaking to. Also it is important not to sound sarcastic or patronising while talking to others as they might perceive you to be disrespectful and not listen to you.
When trying to communicate with someone who does not speak the same language as you can use an interpreter or a service like Google translate, which translate written text into another language. Many people have problems understanding communication. People with hearing difficulties might use Makaton or might lip read so you need to make sure that you speak slowly and clearly and don’t obstruct your face while speaking to them. People with brain injuries caused by illness, strokes, meningitis, or a head injury or a medical condition like cleft