Review how you communicate with others.

Talking:

Talking is also used quite a lot. The good points from talking are that it’s fast and you can talk just about anywhere. With talking you can also adjust the tone and volume of the voice depending on the service user etc. also talking can be used to explain something to the service users and a lot of people can talk and understand spoken communication. The bad points of this are that sometimes a carer can shout too loud at someone, or maybe raise their voice and it could scare some people. Also if a service user is deaf or hard of hearing verbal communication (talking) may be suitable for them. Another bad point for talking is that someone may have a different heritage language or maybe an accent that is difficult to understand. In my placement there is a female service user and she has suffered from a stroke, and she can only make little noises so talking is no good for her but she understands it.

Sign language:

Sign language, I only have to use sign language with one service user. The good points are that he is able to communicate with me and the other 3 members of staff that are able to understand it too. The bad points are that I only know how to sign the alphabet and understand only the alphabet, so in order for the service user and me to communicate we have to spell out words. This took a long time. The other bad point was we had to male sure we were in a well lit room at all times in so we could see hand and finger movements. The other bad point was we had to stop what we were doing so we could use our hands, like put our knife and fork down. This also took quite a lot of concentration so I had to block everything out in order to understand.

Robert Fields

Task 4.4 (2p2)

Review how you communicate with others.

Body language:

        Body language is something we do with out thinking. The good points about body language are that it can help a communication, because if a carer looks interested the communication will be easy and the service user will feel more at ease talking to the carer. In my placement there is a female service user who always wants to complain about one thing or another because she does not think she should be in there and it is very hard to look interested and like you care when it’s the third time in the hour that she has complained to you. The bad points are that if some like a carer has had a bad day then they won’t have positive body language.

Lip reading:

        There are two service users that rely on lip reading in my placement setting. The good points of this are that they are able to understand verbal communication by relying on lips. They can join in on games and group discussions as long as the seating is planned so they can see the person’s lips. The bad points are that it needs to be a well lit room and the person that is speaking needs to be in front of the service user who is lip reading. One problem I have had to try and control is the speed in which I talk because a male service user at my placement asked me to talk slower so he could lip read and understand what I was saying. Another bad point that I experienced is that I did not like having to repeat what I said so changed it to a shorter version the second time around.