Communication and Professional Relationships with Children,
Young People and Adults
When communicating and interacting with people of different ages, different approaches should be taken and behavioural changes should be made in order to make the way you interact with people more effective.
How to interact with children: When interacting with children a main point that helps to maintain a respectful and professional relationship with the child is body language. When talking to a child an adult should be at eye level with the child so the child feels a connection to the adult when they are talking and don’t lose concentration if they know what is being said is aimed at them directly. The child should feel as though the adult respects them by being at their level instead of standing above them whilst talking, if an adult shows the child respect this respect will be returned by the child. The tone of your voice is also an important point when interacting with a child. The tone of voice taken shouldn’t be patronising as patronising a child can be insulting and make the child feel inadequate. This lays a bad foundation for respect to be built upon; if the child feels insulted by the adult they won’t develop respect for the adult. For a respectful and professional relationship to be developed the adult should set boundaries for the child and make sure these boundaries are understood and kept to. The child should know what language is appropriate to use when talking to the adult and what is acceptable to discuss with adults. The child shouldn’t talk to the adult as casually as they would when surrounded by friends. When interacting with a child an adult should be consistent with their behaviour and language. If an adult isn’t consistent the child can find it confusing and difficult to learn how to respond and co-ordinate with an adult if their behaviour is too radically differentiating. Interacting with children around the ages of 2-3 the ‘naughty step’ method of correcting behaviour should be brought in. Around this age children begin to develop awareness of the concept of right and wrong so when the child is behaving inappropriately or badly they should be given 2 verbal warnings before they are moved to the naughty step. It should be made clear to the child why they are being warned or put on the naughty step; if they are unclear they may become confused and act out more as a result. When interacting with adolescents around teenager-age the adult should become sterner as at this age children should know the expected behaviour so they are aware that what they are doing is wrong. When punishing older children you should treat them as you would an adult, you should allow the child to take the consequences for their actions and put what they have done wrong, right. Treating them as an adult will mean they start to act like an adult and show more respect for the adult, treating them as a child will cause them to act this way and act out more against the adult. When two younger children around the ages of 2-3 fall out or disagree it tends to be over toys or activities they both wish to play with or participate in. When dealing with this situation you should explain the concept of sharing to the children in a calm manner, as they aren’t old enough to understand and carry out the concept of sharing straight away. They have to be taught this and you should explain what sharing is and being spiteful is wrong and can harm the feelings of the child they are being spiteful towards. However when adolescents fall out it tends to be over something like a videogame or mobile phone. Children of teenager-age should by this age know better so when dealing with a disagreement between children of this age, the adult should be stricter with the children. The adult should make the children apologise to one another and if they still refuse to share they should have the item confiscated. When around children your