Communication with children Essay

There are many reasons why people communicate these are as follows: Building relationship, it is very important to build a relationship with the children, young people, colleagues and people around us. For instance in the setting I work, the nursery, we communicate all the time to the parents and children to have positive relationship so that we can work together in providing the children’s needs. Simple greetings to the parents will be the start of harmonious relationship and we can develop a partnership in working together towards the development of every child. In our setting we often ask the parents if their child has been ok at home, if any concern such as the child not feeling well or a bit upset, the parents will tell us and that we can understand or have any idea how to deal with the child. We communicate to build a secure, trusting and good relationship with colleagues. Read more:  Identify different reasons why people communicate  essay Every day we talk about our experiences and our lives just to build a bridge of friendship to all staff I work with. We communicate to solve issues or if any problems we experience along the way, we communicate to learn from each other sharing ideas etc. With the children as their carer in school we communicate to know get to know the child. And if the child knows us they feel secure and develop a trusting relationship. We communicate daily to the children to help them learn and enjoy their time in the nursery. Maintaining relationships, it happens to us every day with the people around us by just simply smiling or asking how they are doing, it maintains a good friendship and trust among staff and with the people we work with. In the nursery we communicate with the parents and the children everyday asking how they are feeling, how they are doing to know and understand their needs and that maintain a good relationship and trust. I work with 3-4 year old pupils, for them to stay on task and enjoy what we planned to do with them, a trusting relationship and respect should be establish, we start this as soon as the child starts nursery by communicating with them asking them about their likes and dislikes, then this will carry on everyday so the child will feel comfortable and at ease with you, and with that relationship it is easy for me to have some activities with them such as math game to teach them about playing fairly and the learning objectives. If there’s a problem or concern with the parents, children or colleagues a good communication will work it  out, resolve some issues to maintain a positive environment Gaining and Sharing Information, We need to gain information in the work settings not only with children, young peoples and their families but also with colleagues and other professionals. The information that we gain and share will help us in a way that we work. In the nursery, there was a child with asthma, the teacher and parents give me information about his condition and what to do during emergency, with that it helps me how to deal with the child and provide his needs. If a child has special needs a professional will come and asses the child, your information about the daily routine and behaviour of the child will be needed. Example of this was in the nursery there was a child with a statement for speech and language therapy, the chid sees his speech therapist and got some key words to practice every day, the speech therapist will provide us with a copy of the Childs keywords so that in the nursery we ask the child to practice those words every day. We gain information from the speech therapist about the words the child needs to practice and we share the feedback on how the Childs getting on with it. If a child has allergy, medications will be needed to be shared between parents and nursery staffs. In planning activities and making a child’s learning journey the teacher would like to know your observations , assessments with some children, any good work, likes and dislikes etc. In the end of the day ,nursery staff shares information to the parents regarding how their child has been, example when the teacher has given an activity, an information will be shared regarding how the child coping with the activities and the outcome of it. Gaining reassurance and acknowledgement With working with children and young people, we praise them if they have done good work good behaviour, this will make them proud of what they’re doing and continue the good work or behaviour. When talking to children , parents or colleagues, providing them eye contact or taking interest of what they say would give them reassurance and acknowledgement. We communicate to give reward to good work. A child who has been kind and sharing to his friends will have a smile and sticker from us, this acknowledge that what the child did was really good. Expressing needs and feelings As human beings we all need to express our needs and feelings without doing these it leads to frustration and isolation. A baby knows how to express their needs and feelings by crying or pointing to the object. A child in the nursery will tell a teacher or support staff if he is hungry thirsty, sad, frustrated, happy etc with this we can give their needs. Every day we communicate with children, they tell us if they are upset or if somebody has upset them we solve these issues with proper communication. We talk about our feelings as young children they still are developing to control their emotions, if a child is angry and hurting other children we give the child a timeout and after the time out we talk to them pointing out that its ok to be angry but it’s not ok to hurt other children and if next time he feels angry again, encourage the child to tall a teacher rather than acting out of the Childs anger. We express our needs and expectation to a child, if a child did a good work or behaviour we praise the child, â€Å"what you did today made me very happy†. We express our feeling and needs not only to a child but to other adults around as example children’s parents and our colleagues. Open communication within working environment is essential to maintain relationship. We communicate to understand and to be understood. Sharing Ideas and thoughts Humans have ideas that needs to be shared and thoughts that needs to be heard, example when we are doing Christmas party in our nursery, as a member of staff we put in our ideas and thoughts to this activity , having our ideas put in together we can come up with a brilliant fun party. In planning activities, communication is important to share your brilliant ideas, and if you got some expertise you can share them among other staff, and if you got some weakness other staff can help you. Parents ideas are welcome we welcome then by means of verbal communication or written communication example of this is a suggestion box we provide for parents . CYP 3.5-1.1,2.2 Children- Positive relationship with children is important so that the children will feel safe secure, happy, relax and will have trust in their carer in nursery. Positive relationship is the main ingredient for you to work with children, young people and their families. A relax , comfortable  and happy child can learn more effectively .We can built and maintain it by setting some rules and boundaries with the children, resolve issues with the children and parents if there’s any. Positive relationship with children can be built by asking how the child feeling, what play interest them, listening to them also by showing them good example as they learn through example, be a role model. Young people – Positive relationship with teenager is important for them to give their trust and with that you can work with them effectively. You can maintain and build it by listening and respecting their opinions, know their interest. Deal with issues with sensitivity, honesty and openness and make sure you give feedback. For instance if a young people shared an important information about themselves, show that you are interested by giving eye contact when they speak , body gestures, facial expression so that felt that they have been acknowledge and their ideas being valued. If a young people had shared some problems deal with it with an appropriate manner and made sure you give them appropriate feedback without judging them. Don’t pressure them to do things they don’t want to do, respect the young people’s opinion even if it contradicts your opinion. Parents/carers- Positive relationship with parents and carers is important so that we can build a trust and open relationship with them and with that partnership both school and home can work effectively and support the child’s development. In a nursery setting communication between parents and staff is important every day, so if there are any issues it could be resolve with open and honest communication. We can maintain positive relationship by being welcoming to the parent’s warm and friendly ready to listen to their concern. If a parent had opinions respects it and include parent’s ideas in planning their child’s learning journey. Good relationship with parents means a lot of support they give to our settings example parents voluntarily help during field trip, donation money for more books or anything for the children’s activity. Staff can also learn from parent’s expertise such as baking, etc. Agencies and Professionals –Positive relationship with agencies and professionals important as we work alongside with them as some children needs them. For example a speech therapist will work together with the teacher and staff in providing and giving the child information on how to help his speech development. In my work setting one child has keys words from his speech therapist and he needs to practice those key words every  day, so we communicate with the speech therapist about what the child needs what words he needs to practice. If a child has behavioural issues we can ask for help to the agencies and professionals as they are expert in that field. In the nursery we invited the community police officer to give the children an overview of what they do and how they can help. The children learn many interesting things about a community police officer and they even met a police dog which made the children very happy. SHC 31-1.2 Explain verbal communication and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication Verbal communication is simply the communication that is expressed through words. What you say is verbal communication. What you don’t say is nonverbal communication, example on nonverbal communications are physical gestures, facial expression, body language. Verbal communication example When a child comes to me and say â€Å" can i please go to the toilet†- the child using words and sound that’s verbal communication while non verbal communication is when a child needs a toilet , comes to me a, and just pointed the door of the toilet. The child using body language to say he wants to go to the toilet. I didn’t hear anything no sound produced but still sending the message. How to deal professionally with differences and disagreements As we work with our colleagues we may have different opinions and personality that may cause differences and disagreements to deal with it as a member of a team we should learn how to compromise, accept, listen and respect to other ideas, be diplomatic in everything you say and do, respect each other’s opinion and be discretional. If the there have been misunderstanding or have not used appropriate tone or style or communication a prompt and sincere apology can diffuse situations. When there is disagreements it is best to talk about it in a calm manner, in appropriate place and having a mediator will help. If there are any disagreements with my colleagues or children parents, I will diplomatically discuss and talk the issues with the person I had disagreements with in a proper place and time with sensitivity, tact and with open mindless. I will ask if there anything I did that made somebody upset, and I will apologise if there’s  any. If after trying to reconcile with the person I had disagreements with and there’s still an issue, I will forward it to our deputy head teacher, he the one dealing with issues among staff. Dealing with people with speech difficulties In dealing with people with speech difficulties we can use visual aids; this means we can use pictures to point things out. We can use strong body language facial expression, and hand gestures or learn sign language. The best way to help a child with speech problems is to give them constant support. Support alone can be tremendous in boosting their confidence, which will in turn help their speech. There was a child I was working with that stutters, so when that child speaks to me I listen and give that child time to finish what he/she saying without interrupting. We Avoid corrections or criticisms such as â€Å"slow down,† â€Å"take your time,† or â€Å"take a deep breath.† These comments, however well-intentioned, will only make the child feel more self-conscious. We make talking fun for that child let that child express and talk in his own time and pace. Different language Different language can be dealt with by body language, facial expression and good eye contact. We can use translation and interpreting services. In my working setting I am dealing with a child who cannot speak English as she was from other country, I dealt with it by providing pictures of our daily routines and a strong body language, and facial expressions. Working alongside with translation and interpreting service I had documents to the basic words of the child language, example, hello, good morning. In my work setting we have a child that comes from different country and don’t even speak English, I support that child during dinner time; I use pictures and strong body language to let her understand the rules during dinner time. I asked other child to be a model a good example to her, I reminded the children â€Å"this is how we line up properly, and we need to show our new friend how to stay in line†. During library times I let her choose a book and she was pointing at the pictures of the book telling me the story using her own language. I acknowledge the child and gave her smile and a sticker for sharing the book in her language. A strong facial expression that I am happy . SHC 31-2.2 Environment/Location, it is important to think about location to communicate effectively, it is easier to exchange personal communication when the location is quite and calm. Example of this is when you are talking to a parent about their child’s school performance, you find a quite room, away from the other children, usually the meeting room provided in school and discuss about the matter. When working with children, like reading stories you have to be in a familiar place provided a book area in the nursery, a calm and quiet place and cosy so they could listen effectively. You can’t effectively read stories to a child if you are in a noisy area or a place with lots of distraction. In circle time we gather all the children in the carpet big enough for them to sit down, then before talking we made sure the children sat still and quite. Appropriate place is needed when sharing private information; other people might only want to share the information to you. Exchange information – when changing information, appropriate place is needed, when communicating you should have good eye contact appropriate body gestures/ facial expression and be clear and concise so the information you are sharing is well understood by the receiver. Allow the receiver to clarify your information like asking questions and giving feedback. A good example of this is when the teacher will ask you to do some task with the children. You as a receiver will ask questions to clarify what the teacher ask you to do and how many children involve and the learning objectives. As a parent if you ask the nursery provider to continue your child’s medication, you tell the staff what medicine, what time and how much your child needs to give a clear instruction you can write it one piece of paper. Body language as a communicator is it important to be sensitive to the body language between you and the person you’re communicating with. A child who sucks their thumb may be indicating he is nervous or tired while the adult who are tapping their fingers on the desk sends out â€Å"I’m bored† or â€Å"I’m frustrated† signal. Crossed arms are usually interpreted as meaning you are irritated or unsure whereas open body language-hands on the side, for example-may signal that someone is feeling relaxed. We should avoid crossing our arms when talking to everyone as it may make the atmosphere tense. Facial expression is a strong element of communication and we can show how  we feel through our faces. If a child has done something good we show we are happy by showing a smile, we can’t say â€Å"very good† with a sad face. With working with young children it is important to show high level of facial expression so they can interpret what we are saying of to help them maintain interest. With adults it is important to show that we are taking in what they are saying and we are interested or trying to convey. When communicating to a parent, keeping body language open and relax is a good way to show professionalism and when a challenging situation it helps eases the tension. Smiling is important to show warmth and peace. Smiling when you first meet the parents and children is important to make them feel relax and secure and this will start a positive relationship. SHC 31-3.2 Environment – it can be a barrier to effective communication when the location is noisy, very warm room or not the appropriate place to share information. Example if you are trying to talk to a friend about your problems, you need an appropriate place so others can’t listen, with a conversation to be flowing you need to have a quite noise level, with too much noise you won’t be able to hear each other. If you are telling a story to a group of children you have to make sure the room not too cold or too warm, the children are comfortable and no distractions such as noise so they will listen, they are more likely to be distracted if they aren’t comfortable. Culture and family background-it can be a barrier to effective communication because different culture and family background affects the way people use the methods of communication. Example in different countries eye contact may not be as common in some cultures or may be interpreted differently. People in different countries has different language, with this barrier we have translation and interpreting service. In the Philippines, communicating with the elders has a different way to show respect and politeness example of this is adding â€Å"po† and â€Å"opo† to the end of every sentence. Family background makes a difference and every family has its own way of communication. Some children will have to hear swearing at home others may be hearing more than language. Some children may be vibrant and noisy. Disabilities is a barrier to effective communication, some people cannot speak, hear or some don’t have mental ability to understand but this barrier have lots of ways to deal with, lots of communication methods such as Makaton. Makaton uses signs, symbols and speech to help people communicate. Signs are used, with speech, in spoken word order. This helps provide extra clues about what someone is saying. Using signs can help people who have no speech or whose speech is unclear. Using symbols can help people who have limited speech and those who cannot, or prefer not to sign. Today over 100,000 children and adults, use Makaton symbols and signs. Most people start using Makaton as children then naturally stop using the signs and symbols as they no longer need them. However, some people will need to use Makaton for their whole lives.( http://www.makaton.org/aboutMakaton/) Babies and children’s communication are still limited, visual images including pictures and photographs can help them communicate but also understand what we are saying. Example of this is in our classroom setting everything has signs and labels with pictures on it, they have pictures of their daily routine and pictures of their pegs etc. We have speech and language services to help us find ways in communicating with children and young people. Blind or visually impaired people can access written communication by using Braille. Confidence and self-esteem is a barrier to effective communication when a person is not confident to speak out or express his feelings and thoughts and is not confident to share his ideas or give feedback. Some people shy away from direct face to face contact .Being unable to adequately express your emotions or ideas causes a lowered sense of self-esteem because you keep your feelings trapped inside. This can be extremely frustrating and can cause feelings of depression and isolation. People with low self-esteem generally have less satisfying relationships and more social difficulties than people with a healthy level of self-esteem. Working with children in the nursery, we always encounter shy children specially when it’s their first day in nursery, we deal with this by approaching (being warm and friendly)a child not pressuring the child to speak , and being attentive to a child’s body language so we can give what he needs or what he’s feeling. In circle time some children like to speak out some are shy and would rather share his ideas privately, we can encourage every child to speak and listen by passing a toy around giving them instruction that if they are holding the toy it’s their time to share their ideas. Children that are shy and refuse  to speak will be encouraged but he won’t be pressured to do it, in time he is ready and comfortable to speak out he will do it on his own time. Lack of literacy and ICT knowledge is a barrier to effective communication because some people can’t read or write, some people don’t have access to computers, some doesn’t know how to use computers. We should not make assumptions that all people can access their emails, text or can read English or find it easy to write. We deal with it by asking somebody how you’d like to receive information, such as newsletters in the nursery. With this we know who send emails with. With those people who can’t read and write we can ask extra support how to transfer the message to them or might be some prefer to receive message by phone calls. Use appropriate language when communicating with a person we should know who we are communicating with so we can use appropriate language. When communicating with children we should use simple and clear language. We should be a role model; we should speak clearly and use appropriate facial expression and body language to avoid misunderstanding. As a role model we should avoid swearing in front of children as they can easily pick up these things. We should talk to children with respect as we expect them to respect us. When communicating with parents we should always be tact polite and professional even in a difficult situation. Misunderstanding can happened easily if we don’t use appropriate language, if this happens an apology will do. SHC 31-41, 4.3 Confidentiality is a set of rules keeping certain information secret or private in order to respect people’s rights. Example of confidentially are as follows,  Before taking photographs of children in the nursery, there should be a parent consent usually signed by parents, some parents doesn’t want photographs of their children displayed for safety reasons. Working with children at work, should not be discussed with a close friend or any person who has nothing to do with a child. All written information that relates to a child should be kept securely, example of this children’s work. Information should not be shared to other person if somebody who is not the parent of the child asking for it always check with the parent and ask for consent. Data protection act 1998 the keeping of records, storing of data and passing of information is actually strictly regulated by the data protection act 1998. The act covers both paper-based and electronic records. The act is designed to prevent confidential and personal information from being passed on without a person’s consent. This act originally applied only to information that was stored on computers but it has been updated to include any personal information that is stored, whether paper or electronically. Example of this are the information such as name , address, date of birth, telephone number or any relevant information to our setting should not be shared to other people, it should be stored in a proper place where it’s safe , this act applies as well to computer data. If some random person ask for the child’s address, as the data protection act we are not allowed to give this information to that person. The Freedom of Information Act The Freedom of Information Act gives you the right to ask any public sector organisation for all the recorded information they have on any subject. Anyone can make a request for information – there are no restrictions on your age, nationality or where you live. If you ask for information about yourself, then your request will be handled under the Data Protection Act. Organisations you can request information from You can request information from publicly funded organisations that work for the welfare of the whole population, eg: †¢government departments †¢local councils †¢schools, colleges and universities †¢health trusts, hospitals and doctors’ surgeries †¢publicly funded museums †¢the police †¢non-departmental public bodies, committees and advisory bodies Government departments post responses to freedom of information requests online. You can search through previous responses. View the full list of public authorities covered by the Freedom of Information Act. You can contact an organisation directly by letter or email to make a freedom of information (FOI) request. When making your request, you should include: †¢your name †¢an address where you can be contacted †¢a detailed description of the recorded information you want You have certain rights to environmental information under the Environmental Information Regulations. For example, you can request information about air or water quality, noise and waste as well as any policies, decisions or activities that could affect them. (https://www.gov.uk) Paper based information are stored in a file cabinet, a room usually next to the reception office, it is usually lock and you ask the secretary or the head teacher if you want to access them. SHC 31- 41,4.3 Atmosphere in the setting would create a tension and this would impact the relationship and the development of children Concerns regarding child’s welfare, tensions arise when a parent doesn’t feel secure or lack of trust to the people looking after their child or the other way around such as abuse. To deal with this tension, it’s important to build a good relationship, respect and open communication between parent and carer and must work together for the best care of a child. As a staff, if a parent has problems or concerns about her child it it’s important to deal with it with calmness and follow the procedures laid down in the setting regarding such situations. Pass information directly and quickly to the person in another organisation that has responsibility for dealing such concern. Confidentially should be retained, other staff, parents etc will not necessarily know anything about the concerns that have been raised. Where a child or young person is suspected of committing abuse, example of this is in form of bullying, biting or hitting. This tension could affect children involved and the parents and carer. To deal with this is to refer the schools, or the settings policy with regard to bullying or any abuse committed by the young person. Follow the schools or nurseries Behavioural management, explain to the children what acceptable behaviour and deal with it calmly, or report it to your manager or head teacher. For instance of a child in our nursery scratched another child’s face, we deal with it by giving the child who scratched another child face a time out, usually 3 mins for their age 3-4 years old, after that we talk to the child, explain that  what he done is not acceptable behaviour and let the child understand why, and let him apologise to the child he hurt. Later on we inform the child’s parent about their child action. With the child who has been hurt we deal with it by comforting the child, if there’s a mark we let somebody who is a first aid have a look, then file an accident form. We inform the parent about the incident but not revealing the identity of the child who hurt their child. We ensure that parents that the incident has been dealt with and will investigate further so it won’t happen again. Staff member witnessing another abusing a child or young person, when this happens this will create tension in the setting it is important to report it to the safeguarding officer directly. If ever I witness another staff member abusing a child or a young person I will report it immediately to the safeguarding officer so the case will be look into. To maintain confidentially I won’t spread what I witness to other staff or any person who has nothing to do with the situation. Where a crime has been committed we have partnership with other organisations to safe guard children and young people. Example scenario of this when a child confides in you that he/she is being abuse; you can deal with it by telling your safeguarding officer about it or your line manager and maintain confidentiality. Disclose something if you think the child in danger, you will be doing the best for the child if you disclose such information of a sensitive nature even if you feel you are breaking a confidence. Follow your setting’s regarding disclosure of abuse. Parents should have seen your settings child protection policy which will state that information will be disclose if it is deemed that a child is in any danger.