Another factor that affects his ability to communicate is that he has a learning disability. This is a potential barrier that comes in the way of Ahmed’s communication as he may feel different than the other children in his class. Because Ahmed has a learning disability it changes the way he thinks and interprets things. “Children with learning disabilities see, hear and understand things differently. This can lead to difficulty with learning new information and skills and putting them to use.” ( Accessed 14/10/15) This can make Ahmed feel left out from the other children and discourage him to communicate. This can potentially mean his language is not as developed as some of the other children so he may be a bit behind, this affects the way he communicates because it will be difficult to have conversations with others if he is does not have the same abilities as them because they may not understand what Ahmed is trying to say and their language may be to developed for Ahmed as he is still learning slowly. A strategy that could be put in place is having a teaching assistant with him because this may make him feel comfortable and potentially more confident. The assistant can help him with words and could make picture cards for words that he may struggle with, for example having a picture of a book so he recognises that it’s a book and he can point to it so the assistant understands what he is trying to say or what he wants. The assistant could have one-to-one sessions with him to help him with communication and his schoolwork. Having a one-to-one session with an assistant can make a lot of difference in Ahmed’s ability to communicate because if he builds a relationship with this assistant he could possibly open up and express his feelings in a way that he can even if it is not through verbal communication.
Ahmed struggles with English, which is also a factor that affects the way he communicates. It can isolate him from other children in the school because English is not his first language so it will make it difficult for him to fit in with children who speak fluent English. It will block the quality of communication and affect the needs of Ahmed being met adequately. For example, if a supply teacher was covering and didn’t know his needs, they will not be met because he may not be able to explain what his needs are because his English is limited. As he struggles with English, it will also be difficult for him to interact with other students because he will not know how to speak to them and if the children to try communicating in English, Ahmed may not understand so there will be miscommunication and a language barrier between them. A strategy that could potentially be put in place for Ahmed to improve his English is having a translator come in to help him develop his English language. The translator could come in maybe twice a week. This would help Ahmed quite a fair bit because he can speak to the translator in the language he knows fluently and the translator can then communicate with him and help him with his English by saying words in English and then telling him what they mean in his first language. This is a good way for Ahmed to learn English because he will gradually recognise more words and could possibly start speaking sentences, which will help with his confidence, and he may start communicating with other people.
Because Ahmed struggles with communication he has now become very withdrawn from people and sometimes is antisocial which is another factor that affects the way he communicates. This is because he keeps himself away from others as he may think he cannot get involved and interact because of his needs. Ahmed may think he is different to the rest of the children so may feel like he is not included with them. This affects his communication because he will have no one to talk to and it stops him from making friends and having a social life. A strategy that could be put in place for this is doing more group work in class because this will mean he has to talk to different people. Doing group activities may encourage him to have a conversation and get involved. This will be good for Ahmed’s confidence because he will be working with other people who could help him and it means that he wouldn’t be talking one-to-one because that may be intimidating for Ahmed as he probably wouldn’t know how to start the conversation. Group activities include everyone so they don’t feel left out; this will help Ahmed to socialize more and he may stop being withdrawn from others as he might make friends who will make him feel normal and included.
Whilst on work experience I had to have conversations with patients and some of the patients were difficult to communicate with, this is because there were factors that affected their communication.
One factor was a patient who had dementia. This affected the way they communicated with others in the care home. “The word dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language.” (accessed 13/12/15) dementia causes patients to forget all previous memories and they find it difficult remembering things and they have language difficulties. Every time a carer spoke to the patient either asking them a question or telling them to do something, it took them a while to remember and take in the information, it required the carer to repeat what they were saying several times. This affected their communication because it meant they couldn’t have a detailed conversation so there was lack of information being received. Patient with dementia sometimes respond slowly because it takes them a while to process everything. To overcome this barrier, the carers in the care home used pictures. This is because the pictures were repeated many times a day which meant the patients found it easier to remember. Pictures helped with the patients memory and it was easier for them to point at the picture so the carer knew what they were trying to say.
Lastly, another factor that affected patient’s communication in the care home was a patient who was partially deaf. This was a barrier that affected the communication between the carer and the patient. When the carer was trying to have a conversation with the patient, it was very difficult for the patient to hear because there was also a lot of background noise which made it worse. Sometimes what the patient heard was different to what the carer was saying so the conversation was not effective because the point was not getting across. To overcome this barrier, the carers were using sign language because sign language was more effective as the patient understood it better and it also didn’t require hearing. Sign language was known by the majority of the staff members so they could communicate with different patients who had hearing difficulties. Another stragey that was put in place for some of the patients were hearing aids. These were only used for people who were struggling a lot to hear. Hearing aids help with hearing and it means words become louder in the patients ear and they could hear everything. This made the patients feel confident within themselves. The patients found it easier to follow conversations so communication between the patient and carer was more effective.
Overall, it is important that these factors can be overcome in order for service users to have effective communication with others. There are many strategies that could be put in place and these should all be considered when getting service users to communicate.
Bibliography
A Society . (2015). What is dementia?. Available: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200360. Last accessed 13th Dec 2015.
NHS. (2015). About learning disability . Available: http://www.sabp.nhs.uk/iamme/understanding-learning-disability . Last accessed 14 Oct 2015.
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