Tone of voice and pace
Another non verbal skill that we should apply is tone of voice. It involves the way our voice sounds as we speak. Our tone of voice is sending a message to other people. When we talk other people can pick up a small change in our tone of voice which can have negative impact on them. The way we speak can make people to have negative judgment so we should be aware that it’s not only what we say but also it depends upon the way we say it.
Tone of voice lets other people to know the feelings that we have. Whether the message is good or bad, it all depends upon the tone of voice. Appropriate tone of voice in appropriate time helps to build relationship and to have mutual understanding. Talking politely, appropriate speed, giving them a chance to say, maintaining the volume etc. helps other people to cope with us which result in active progress in the problem we are dealing with. It makes them to feel that we are listening to them and we are giving them value. For example, in early years setting, if we speak in a polite and gentle way then children feel secure and comfortable to communicate with us.
But shouting at service user or talking in low volume, one sided talk, talking fast etc makes them scared, angry, confused, not listening to them and not giving them interest which makes the relationship to go worst resulting late and passive progress. For examples in early year setting, children are of sensitive nature. While talking with them if we shout at them then they feel scared and frighten to ask or communicate later on. They will lack the interest at certain thing. This prevent children to learn and as well as service provider to cope with them. So it is necessary to maintain or tone of voice. On other hand, while working with elderly people, we should know that they have less hearing power so we should speak in such a way so that they can hear and understand us. Talking in low volume prevents them from hearing which results in confused, devalued etc.
In such cases also we should apply our care value of promoting equality and diversity which helps us on understanding individual differences like hearing disabilities, sensitive nature etc. because same tone of voice doesn’t apply for all of the service users.
Body language
Body language is also an important non verbal communication which results on positive and negative impact on other people we communicate because our body language sends the messages or our thought that we have. It includes our facial expression, posture, gestures etc.
Facial expressions is very important component of our body language as it shows our emotional state. It send very complex messages which can be noticed easily. For example if someone is sad then his/her eyes will be looking downwards, there will be tension and worries in their face, their mouth will be closed etc. and if someone is happy then he/she will have wide eyes ready to make eye contact with other people, smiling face, and they might have their hands and arms moving to show their excitement.
The way we sit or the way we stand send other messages. We have different ways of sitting and they have distinct and different messages that we are sending about our emotional state that we have through it. For examples sitting with crossed arms tells us that he/she is not taking any notice, leaning on something tells us that he/she is relaxed or bored and leaning forward tells that he/she is interest etc.
The movements of our hands and arms helps other to understand what we are saying which is known as gestures. Every action we do can be noticed by other people easily. The way in which we touch other people or avoid touching sends an important message. Touching another people tells us that we are caring them, shows our affections, power over them or sexual interest. Although touching helps us to understand what we are saying, it might not apply to all other person from different country having different culture. In a care work, carer have to know an individual differences of service users and respect them.
In a different way of our body language, we are sending a message to other people even though it is just a simple hand move. In a care work, carer has to be aware of their body language which has direct impact on other person’s feelings. They also have to be aware of an individual differences which can cause a barrier. So, in order to overcome such barriers, they have to understand it and respect it. They have to apply it so that it helps them to feel comfortable, safe, secure, valued, satisfied etc.
Verbal communication
Active listening is another important communication skill. It lets the client to know that we are paying attention what they are saying. There are four component of it.
In a care work, the ability of understanding the thought and the feelings of other people is very important. Understanding other people helps to build the relationship between service users and service providers. While communicating with other people it is very important that the thoughts or the feeling of other people is understood by clarifying what he/she have said. It helps to identify the feelings of other people. One way to check clarification is to paraphrase or saying what other people said in our own words and another way is to ask questions to them to build understanding. But questions are also of two types. Open questions and closed questions. Open question are the question which lets other to speak more. It encourage other people to think and discuss the thoughts and feelings that they have. It helps to carry on the conversation. But on other hand, closed questions are the question which only lets other to speak an single sentence. It prevents other people to carry on a conversation. Some of the examples of open and closed questions are as follows:-
And also there are probes and prompts which also helps in building relationship. Probes is a very short questions which usually follows on from an answer that the other person has gives. For examples ‘Can you tell me more?’. And prompts are short questions or words which we offer other person in order to prompt them to answer. For example ‘Would you do it again?’. Both the way of asking questions helps other people to continue the conversation which helps on understanding each other resulting on building relationship.
In a care work, it is necessary to have conversation. Without clarifying the task, other people remain confused which results on angry, frustrated, sad etc. In order to overcome such barriers then one should be able to clarify the task.
Summarising is all about reviewing what has been said. It helps an individual to keep focusing on their work. The ability to summarise needs good memory and also the ability to extract the important points in a conversation which helps to check and clarify understanding of other people, it also helps to carry on the conversation and correct any inaccuracies that might have while communicating. It promotes equality and collaboration as it lets both to tell their feelings and thoughts. As it reduces inaccuracies it helps to build up the relationship. Some of the phrases for summarising are as follows:-
- “So can I just go through them so I’m aware of everything…?”
- “I’d like to get this clear.......am I right?”
- “It seems as if……”
- “I’d like to pause a minute and see if I’ve understood you correctly…”
- “Let’s just recap…” etc.
In a care work, it is an important to summarise because it lets other people to know that we are listening them and understood them. It makes other people to feel valued, comfortable, safe, secure etc.
Paraphrasing is all about expressing the same meaning in other words. It is very important to reflect back in our own words as it helps to demonstrate that we have listened and understood. So, it helps to built an understanding of their views as well as the relationship between service users and service providers. It is an important skill as it helps to improve accuracy in communication.
In a care work, paraphrasing is used to tell other people that we have understood them. With this skills it helps them to realize that we are interested on them and it helps to feel valued, comfortable etc.
Empathy comes within relationship where one person has deep understanding involving intellectual and emotional understanding of another person. And empathizing is the skill of communicating an accurate understandings of the feelings that he/she has. It helps on building relationship as it shows other that we have caring attitude.
Service users has to through different difficulties so it is necessary that service provider show empathy but not a sympathy. Service provider have to be tough enough to deal with any of the problems. And also have patience to cope with the problem that service users have.