Interpersonal Communication - Improving Communication Competence - Case Study Example

Interpersonal Communication: Improving Communication Competence Communication holds the key to the interaction of people within a society. Communication creates bonds between individuals in a community or society. With proper communication we are able to get through every day life around other people. Communication process is responsible for the creation of relationships between individuals in a society. According to Wood (45), communication creates bonds among individuals with similar characteristics and preferences. He further argues that without communication evolution of human nature could have still been at Stone Age level. As much as communication is regarded as the major toll for interaction, many people have personal problems which prevent them from having proper communication. Most of all communication problems are of psychological origin. In the words by Mulholland (31) communication problems and difficulties are caused by our psychological weaknesses. Apart from the psychological challenges, some communication problems are caused by our interest and ignorance towards several factors in the society. If one has hatred or dislike towards a certain group of individuals in society, the communication between the groups is usually difficult. One cannot have poor communication with all individuals in society. No matter how antisocial a person can be one cannot avoid communication. It is what makes it possible to carry out our daily life from our profession life and private life. It helps us build rich relationships with people we fancy and attracted to. We need communication to maintain our social status in society. According Sharry (97), communication and relationships cannot co-exist without one another. In this paper I will focus on my lack of proper communication skills and the way I developed the weaknesses which hinder my daily interaction. Additionally, I will focus on how am planning to improve my communication skills in the area of my weaknesses. When talking about communication, it refers to verbal interaction with all levels of the society; children, teenagers and adults. I always have communication problem when it comes to communicating to children and teenagers. However, I do have communication sessions with two groups but it is usually not very healthy and it needs improvement. In many instances, I find myself in position where my communication with a teenager or child turns to ignorance. In most cases, I disregard their participation and their opinion in the communication. It usually causes the communication to turn into an instruction giving session where I am the instructor. Additionally, I usually have the feeling that any individual below my age has the right to listen and not oppose what I say to them. According to Beebe and Redmond (102) a problem with communication with one’s juniors is usually caused by a psychological motive towards people under one’s age. No matter how old or aged an individual might be, one must be able to interact with persons below their age. This promotes the lessening of the generation gap in society. Individuals past the teenage age in society need the teenagers and children as much as children need grownups I terms of communication or verbal interaction. This weakness makes my communication skills somewhat inadequate and demanding. To achieve communication goals, one should be able to interact with all generations of the society. Part of the communication goals include bridging the generational gap which cannot be achieved by poor communication with children and teenagers. To confidently say that I have achieved communication goals I have to interact with these two significant generations. However, my communication with the rest of the society is more than convincing. Sometimes I do try to communicate with teenagers successful but I have never succeeded when it comes to children. When it comes to children, they have very unique ways of communication which do not occur naturally to all individuals. Children are one of the most difficult groups in society to communicate with. With children one must know how to interpret sign languages and facial expressions (Mulholland 123). These extra communication skills are what make it difficult for one to relate to their language. When interacting with children and teenagers, experience is always a factor when it comes to relating to them through communication. One must get used to children if they are to be able to communicate to them efficiently. For my case, I have never had chance to bring up a child. In my family, I am last in the line of siblings which gives me a disadvantage in the role of interacting with a child. I would attribute this to my lack of appropriate skills when communicating with children. According to Wood (54), children need an experience when it comes to interacting with the young generation. My exposure to children is very limited which hinders me from practicing communication skills for children and teenagers. Apart from the lack of interaction with kids, another factor hindering my efficient interaction with children is the fact that my relationship with kids and teenagers is not rich. Communication being a relationship builder, it is not easy or impossible to build relationships when there is no proper communication. My poor communication with children is responsible for my not having a relationship with children. According to Sharry (101), proper communication to children starts with proper interaction with them. There is more in communicating to children than just verbal communication. Children use body languages, facial expressions and attitude which need understanding and close observation. This is what makes them unique. It is due to this reason that parents are usually the best communicators with children. The lengthy time spend between mother and child provides them with the required and appropriate skills to build good relationships with children through communication. In curbing the problem I have when communicating and relating to children and teenagers, the exposure is the crucial part of improvement. I have decided to interact with these two groups occasionally. I will enable this by planning visits to homes and children centers. Additionally, I plan to attend counseling for youth seminars. These are aimed at knowing how to communicate with children and youths. Most importantly, I will give me the best approaching skills needed to start a communication session with teenagers and children. In one counseling session I attended, I learned that teenagers need to relate and communicate with a person who respects and support their youthful nature (Beebe and Redmond 76) Additionally, I learned that when dealing with children one is required to come up to their generation in terms of subject of communication. Apart from communicating with teenagers, it helps build a relationship with them. As far as children are concerned, it is important to be interesting to have their attention. Visiting children homes has enabled me to start knowing children preferences when it comes to interaction and communication. I would gladly say that attending counseling sessions and visiting children has really improved my communication skills to children and teenagers. Communication skills especially with people not in ones age and generation proves to be difficult if one does not learn how to relate to them (Mulholland 67). From the focus on my communication weakness, it is evident that an effort is needed when it comes to learning communication skills. My experience has given me the courage to want to relate to children and teenagers to be exposed to my communication weaknesses and improve my interaction skills. I would confidently say that my relation with teenagers and children has greatly improved. I have created proper relationships with teenagers and children, which leads me to achieving my communication goals. Works Cited Beebe, S. and Mark Redmond. Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 2010. Print. Mulholland, Joan. The Language of Negotiation: A Handbook for Improving Communication Strategies. London: Rutledge. 2002. Print. Sharry, John. Parenting Power: Bringing Up Responsible Children and Teenagers. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 2003. Print. Wood, Julia. Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters. New York: Cengage Learning. 2012. Print. Read More