Group interaction

GROUP INTERACTION

I conducted my group communication at Ysgol Bryn Castell, Cefn Glas. I chose to do it there because it was convenient to conduct group interaction in a school, as there is always opportunity for this type of interaction in such a setting.

For the interaction I read a simplified version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ out to a class of six children, and then had a question and answer session to check that the children had understood the play properly and to find out what their views were on it. The children sat around me on their chairs in a semi circle. They were seated this way so that they could all see me, my facial expressions, body movements and gestures. This seating arrangement also allowed all the children to hear me properly and for me to check that they were all paying attention and were interested in the story.

Communicating in these group situations is different from one-to-one communication. People have to take turns to speak and this can be more difficult to do in a group than when there is only one other person to converse with. People are easily influenced in group situations and don’t give their full opinion or, if the group is large, some people may not contribute at all.

Factors influencing my group interaction

Communication is influenced by the particular individuals involved, the relationship between the individuals, the subject of communication and the physical situation. As the children involved in my interaction all had special needs this influenced the communication, as their difficulties affected their ability to communicate effectively. The fact that the children did not know me well also affected the communication, but not significantly as we were not talking about any personal or private information.

Some children in the group were hard of hearing, which also influenced the interaction as it meant that I ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Factors influencing my group interaction

Some children in the group were hard of hearing, which also influenced the interaction as it meant that I had to rely more heavily in non-verbal skills. The fact that the communication took place in a public area (school) could have influenced the interaction as it could have limited the subject of conversation because I would have had to have respected client confidentiality, but again, there was no personal or private information involved.

Review of communication

As the children I was communicating with in Ysgol Bryn Castell were all special needs students, it took them a while to give me answers to my questions and also to get their words out. I waited without rushing them for a response and used unconditional positive regard because I felt that it was very important for them to tell me in their own time.

The interaction followed my original plan and focused on the Romeo and Juliet play. To help the children understand the play, as well as reading the dialogue, I also showed them cartoon pictures that related to the story. I found that this also helped to keep the children involved and interested, as the pictures were amusing.

In the question and answer session, I felt that I empowered the children as I was aware of them making their own decisions and I allowed the conversation to go in the direction that the children wanted so that it flowed more easily and the children would not be bored or disinterested.

Sometimes during the interaction, it was difficult to understand what the children were saying because of the different disabilities, so I constantly used reflective listening to check that I had properly understood what the children were trying to say. I also could not be sure that the children could hear what I was saying all the time, so I had to heavily use appropriate body language and facial expressions, so not to confuse them, and I also spoke slowly and clearly.

Action plan for improvement

I could:

arrange for my interactions to be videoed so that I could then analyse and improve my verbal and non-verbal skills

have practiced reading the story out loud to myself or others before the interaction so that I knew the story and had no difficulty pronouncing words to the children, as I would have already practiced them