The Effects of Culture, Positioning and Gestures on Communication in a Playgroup.

Health, Social Care and Early Years Setting

National Level 3

4B. Produce materials to show the influence of:

Culture
Positioning
Gestures

Culture:

When wanting to communicate effectively two individuals have to make sure that they have no sort of barriers between them which will stop them from communication. They will have to bear in mind that only getting rid of barriers will make the communication effective. Care workers in care settings make sure that they communicate effectively without any barriers to communication.

“Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking--ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the "same" language. When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases.”

(http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/cultrbar.htm)

When an individual who is from a foreign country and doesn’t not speak English very well then it will become harder for him to communicate effectively because he will not know what to say or what that other person might be saying to him. It is very important for an individual to learn other languages too so that they could communicate with other members of society such as in a early years settings when a Pakistani girl joins and she does not know how to speak English even living in England, it will become hard for her to communicate with other children and staff.

In Sunhil’s playgroup the teacher make sure that the children who cant speak proper English to learn it as fast as they can for their own benefit because then they will be able to speak English properly and easily with other members in playgroup. Learning language where an individual lives is very important because if they don’t know that language they will not be able to communicate effectively or even communicate at all.

When cultural differences come in between two individuals communicating, it will affect the communication because they will no longer communicate effectively. Cultural barriers not only affect communication, but also affect how the other person will react whether negative or positive. A person might start to become rude to them and maybe use abusive language toward them which will lead to another person feeling offended.

In Sunhil’s playgroup the teachers have to make sure that there is no type of cultural differences between the children because it will affect their communication with other children and also as they grow up it will affect the relationship between their classmates too. The teachers make sure that they don’t have cultural differences between each other too. Cultural differences can affect the effective relationship between individuals who communicate with other for example a person might not want to communicate with another individual because he is from Nigeria.

Cultural behaviour can also affect effective communication because if ...

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Cultural behaviour can also affect effective communication because if two individuals were talking to one another they would start to argue whether whose culture has better traditions then other. Cultural behaviour might be one of the factors which are so popular in nowadays society. People don’t like to communicate with one another because of the behavior one culture carries out.

For example some people might celebrate the bonfire night by doing fireworks however there will be few people who might go against fireworks because they are dangerous and when these two individuals with different belief communicate one might say I like the 5th of November however the person may disagree to him and say that I hate the 5th of November.

Some might not want to communicate with other individuals from different cultures because they might feel that their culture is better then the other person’s culture which will affect their effective communication. For example an Indian might say to a Pakistani that their culture is better then the Pakistani culture which will cause arguments between the two affecting the communication between them.

“All of these differences tend to lead to communication problems. If the people involved are not aware of the potential for such problems, they are even more likely to fall victim to them, although it takes more than awareness to overcome these problems and communicate effectively across cultures.”

(http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/cultrbar.htm)

Positioning:

Communication can be problem when it comes to sitting positions because two individuals cannot communicate effectively if they are not facing each other properly. For example when two individuals are talking to each other and one of them does not face another person then they will not be able to communicate effectively.

Positioning can be a big problem for example if Sunhil’s nursery nurse is communicating with a child and she is not on the same level as the child then this will affect the communication because the child will feel scared and will not respond to the teacher as to what she is saying.

In some countries there can be influence of position for example in Hindu wedding the bride and the groom walk after each other, mainly the bride follows the groom and say their speech and promises. Some people might find it a barrier to communication because they might not be facing each other and be classed as a rude act however they believe that the groom should walk first because he has more rights. Whereas in the Christians wedding they make sure that they are facing each other so it is direct communication they are doing while saying their promises and speeches.

Also not having an another person as the same level can also make them feel like there is a huge barrier between them and also might not be able to hear that person properly and will misunderstand some information. For example in early years settings the teacher might be talking to Sunhil’s and she might be standing up and he might be sitting down which can make him feel that she is standing over him making him have fear and scared from the teacher who is wanting to communicate with him.

If the nursery nurse is not at the same level as the service user, then the service user may not take the nursery nurse seriously and may not be able to hear the nursery nurse and may take the information differently. For example, if Sunhil is sat on the floor and the nursery nurse is stood and she tries to talk and ask Sunhil a question he may not communicate or respond properly because he may feel that the nursery nurse is not talking to him and he may not be able to hear the nursery nurse.

In early years setting the teachers should make sure that they are facing the children properly in order to communicate effectively or the teachers have to make sure that the children are facing them properly. The positioning of an individual is very important because it will support the effective communication which will take place. The teachers should also make sure that they are facing the person properly and having a good eye contact with them so the other person wants to know what they are saying and make their sayings valued.

When a teacher is talking to a child in the nursery they should make sure they are leaning down on the same level as the child to speak to them. This will support the effective communication within them and the child will listen to the teacher more carefully too. This can also help the child have eye contact with the teacher so he can listen to the teacher more carefully and attentively.

When a child has bad hearings, the teacher have to make sure that they are on the same level as the child because then she is not then the child will not be able to hear the teacher properly. Even if they can’t hear, they will be able to lip read or partially understand what the teacher is trying to say to that child.

In Sunhil’s playgroup there is a girl called Amy, she is hard of hearing so the teachers in the playgroup make sure that they are leaning towards the child so that they can hear what she trying to say or what the teacher might want to say to her. The teachers make sure that Amy can lip read or partially hear what the teacher wants to say to her because in Sunhil’s playgroup effective communication is very important.

When a group is having communication, even then positioning is very important because not sitting in a correct position make individuals feel that they are being let out. The individuals should make sure they are sitting together facing each other so they know what everyone is saying so effective communication is carried on without any positioning barriers.

For example in Sunhil’s playgroup the teacher make sure that when they are doing story time, they make sure that all the children are sitting in a right position so that there is no kind on communication barriers between them such as few children not listening effectively or some children feeling left out or even some children not being able to hear properly.

Gestures:

Communicating with gesture is very important in health and social care. Gestures can be such as facial expressions, hand signals, eye gazing or even body position. For example when a teacher in care setting smiles at a child, the child will immediately know the teacher is happy with that child also if the teach pointed hand towards the door, the child will know that teacher is indicating them to go out of the room.

Non-verbal communication is very important in early year’s settings because the teacher will help the children know what they are trying to say to them more easily and properly without any difficulties. For example when the children come inside the playgroup the teacher will greet them by waving their hands at them, immediately the children will wave their hands back even if the children don’t verbally hear the teacher properly.

For example in Sunhil’s playgroup, if the teacher was to say goodbye to them at home time, the children will immediately know what the teacher is talking about even if the teacher does not speak to them by saying by. The teachers believe that using non-verbal in early years setting is more important than communicating verbally.

Using hand signals is also very important in early years setting. Hand signals are very important to use because the teachers can make it easier for children to understand such as if the teacher is indicating to the door the children will know that she wants us out of the room however if the teacher just told the children that she wants them out of the room without hand signals then the children won’t know what she might be saying because some children won’t be listening and some children won’t understand what she is talking about.

In Sunhil’s playgroup the teacher used the thumbs up sign which on of the kids in the playgroup found strange who was an Australian. So he went and told his parents about this who informed him that nothing wrong with it. The reason he found it strange was in Australia the thumbs up sign means the opposite.

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