Reflection on Communication in Practice - Essay Example

Reflection on Communication in Practice Content Introduction General types of communication 2. Communication with learning disabled child 3. Common errors during communication with Learning disabled children 4. Methods of communication with Learning Disables Children 5. Gibb's reflective model and why I used it in present study 6. The description of incident, as it happened, is given 7. Conclusion 8. References Introduction "The imparting or interchange of thoughts and opinion as well as information by speech, writing or sign" called communication. Communication also mean that a process by which information is exchanged between individual through a common system of symbol, sign a behaviour. Communication means there's the exchange of information and thoughts. It is a very necessary process in this professional world. It is a two way process and very important for the persons who like to share their thoughts having same goals. Communication is a process by which we can transfer information in encoded form transmitted to the receiver through kind of channel or media. At receiving end receiver decode the message and give response to the sender corresponded to the sanded message. If we want to make the communication between two parities than they should have area of communicative commonality. There are various means of acoustic communication such as speaking, singing, some tones of voice there are also physical means of communication such as body language sign language Paralanguage, touch, eye contact by using writing. These are very useful for those people who are deft & dumb. Actually communication is the expression of sending a particular message through different forms of media either it is verbal or nonverbal including thought annoying idea and gesture. When babies born having the ability to make sound, but still they have to learn to speak and communicate effectively. Speaking and listing abilities to understand verbal and nonverbal messages are the skills we can which we can develop various process. Still we learn basic communication skills by simply observing other people and mock-up our behaviour what we see in our daily life and from our surroundings. We also learn some communication skills through education and by practicing it. General Forms of Communication: 1. Verbal communication 2. Nonverbal communication. 1. Verbal Communication: It is also called a dialogue communication, which is the mutual conversation between the two or more entities. Dialogue communication is a exchange of using words .It is kind of communication between the two or more entities, it is very necessary that two entities must have the common language to exchange their ideas and thought verbally for which we make the standard language "English" through which we can easily exchange our thoughts to the receiver internationally. 2. Nonverbal communication: Non verbal communication is a kind of process through which we can communicate with other side through a word less message such as gesture, body language, posture, facial expression and eye contact. This is also called the behaviour communication. Communication with learning disabled child Learning disability is cost due to the problem in the nervous system and affects the main body parts through which we communicate and thus affect the ability of the body to receive processed or communicates. There is various type of disorder which decided that which kind of verbal non verbal information is required understood, order remember and spoken. Generally disorder may be divided of four types. a. expression language disorder b. mix received expression language disorder c. Phonological disorder falter. Since learning disabled children have limited vocabulary or words or many cases know speech at all. Thus we have to figure out much behaviour expression for communication. We also required to fill in gaps arises from lack of verbal communication. E.g. He (257) clarifies that onus is on the staff to invent ways to assess the needs of these children. The children act 1989 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995 act clearly put such responsibility on care providers. While valuing people 2001 emphasizes appropriate staff training to this aspect. Glaser, Richardson and Richardson (791) have found that Children with learning disability feel difficulty in communicating with people stating that they feel unwell or are in pain. They often are either unable to use verbal method or have limited vocabulary. Sometimes the communication takes the form of difficult behavior. After that we conclude that person has learning difficulty instead of being in pain or in poor health. We also conclude that they often are either unable to use verbal method of have limited vocabulary. Though sometimes health care worker also help the lack of skills to communicate well with disabled. They may use medical terms, complex sentences which they are unable to understand. Moreover, the rules of language are complex and at times do not follow common rules. Gates (258) points out the complexity of English language rules. It begins with syntax which is the grammar and order of the words. Giving a meaning to a sentence (semantic) and making other understand it (pragmatics). The grammatical rues are complex for English language. Its plurals are generally formed by adding 's' to the word e. g. cow; cows, boy; boys but same is not the case with man or sheep. The past tense is generally obtained by adding suffix 'ed' to the word but the past of come or send does not fall under this category. Beside during we highlight the word with a body gesture or body language, which often gives the totally different meaning to what we are trying to transfer. The guidelines provided in Cornwell -NHS trust (2) are useful while communicating with disabled children. They have figure out that while relating with such a child remove alternate disturbance for e.g. Television, use pictures, photos, facial expression and gesture to pass your message across. Speak slower than one speaks normally. It is common observation that when child become nervous. Common errors during communication with Learning disabled children Gates (262) has advised careers of teach disabled children to prevent some of the common errors. These are: 1. The person who is non-disabled takes dominant part in communication 2. Children restricted from play for e. g. those having intellectual palsy get lesser opportunity to communicate. They should be given care by different people to improve communication. 3. LD children often use imprecise gestures and expression which if the career does not understand their communication becomes less. The career tries to talk more that supplementary reduces the communication and a relationship does not form. In fact the child may become hostile against such career. 4. Career general does not realize that child is trying to make his/her best possible communication. The career must first develop bond with child to encourage communication. For e.g. if the child is arranging chairs, she should also do that. The child is likely to involve her in game and a possible dialogue would develop. 5- Children with no speech or sign language often show difficult behaviour to get their message. 6- Sometimes the communication problem is more of the result of child being visually and hearing damage. Methods of communication with Learning Disables Children Thomas and Woods (85-86) found British Sign language (BS) somewhat complex for learning disabled. They advocated Mankato as more useful and suitable for these people. In BSL (BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE) the use of one or two hands requires practice, motor coordination. Also identification of spelling o words and string of words are required. British sign language also having movement of face, eyes, head and body. It is very difficult to understand by the learning disabled people. Mankato is on the basically obtain from BSL. And is used mostly by learning disabled child. The first stage gives assign of word of essential need for those who are visually damage. Braille (it's the method used by the blind people for learning) is the language of choice. When we consider of 'visually augmentative communication' we generally think of something like PECS called Picture Exchange Communication System. Which is really helpful for child being visually damage, communication board, or equipments that create voice. A new technology known as VIA is based on psychological and behaviour expression of people with learning disabilities. For e.g. a child with autism shows anxiety and becomes frustrated when he is unable to get his message across. Siegel (2003:197) explains that the autistic child teaches the facial gaze, tone of voice and gestures and develops a vocabulary out of these. It is not available in PECS. Thus the child learns to interact and not merely superficially see things. As with child with cerebral palsy there is often error in finding its mental ability. Gossans (abstract) used picture symbol and functional speech method. With the attainment of a reliable means of communication, professionals were finally able to evaluate the child's true developmental status. A severely physically impaired child was found to be of normal intelligence though rated as mentally retarded earlier. Thus there is still scope for development of better communication tools for learning disabled children. Gibb's reflective model and why I used it in present study We used here Gibbs Reflective Model to put reflection on what I am practicing and to give strength and my weak points and to over come other problems related while communicating with LD. this model is very effective and very commonly used by the people who are in nursing care. I have used it for many reasons. First of all it gives support to my own thought of caring and as this model is very common I am very familiar with it. Also this model gives the clear way for communicate with LD. I am giving the example of a child here: A very nervous child A in her room. She is psychological and didn't know her very well. So it is very difficult for me to understand what he trying to express. I approached her and answer what you want or you need some thing, but child A has very limited speech and not very expressive words actually she was saying something to me but I was unable to understand that what she was saying. As I asked her to repeat her self the most she becomes nervous. Than one of the nurses heard that she was shouting. And come to check what was going on. Than I told her what had happened here and than she went in the office and comeback with essential required pictures, which is easily understandable by the LD. than child chose a picture of fan and then nurse understand what she wanted because at that time fan was not running and she felt hot there. And then she became normal. so I understand that as I could not help the child which provoked her behaviour It was very difficult for me to accept it that I was unable to control her behaviour. My assessment for the incident is that I forced the child again and again to speak out her wish knowing that child have the limited speech and sign language. Actually at that I should have called for the nurse first when I was seeing that she became nervous. The description of incident, as it happened, is given: Child A was in her room very agitated, she's autistic and since I didn't know her that very well, I approached her and asked her what was the matter. Child A has limited speech and not very clear words, she was saying something to me but I had no idea what she was saying. As I asked her to repeat herself the more she became agitated. One of the nurses heard her banging things and came to check what was going on. I told her what had happened and she went in the office and brought some pictures with her and placed them on the floor. She asked child A to tell us what was wrong. The child chose a picture of a closed window, the nurse shut her bedroom window and she calmed down. My feelings after the incident were of inadequacy as I could not help the child which aggravated her behaviour. It was difficult to accept my own fault initially but later I tried to be as honest as possible. I could not control my nerves seeing the child in that condition. I learned that difficult behaviour by child was a way to send her message across. So I analyzed that I really have the lack of knowledge to communicate with LD child. Now I decided that first learned the liking and disliking of these kind of child and then try to learned that how to make friendly behaviour with them so to make them friendly with people around him. Generally it is happening that I learned lot from books but at the time of application we loose patience and this is the thing we have to maintain and make them familiar to us and than try to communicate with them. The Gibb's Reflective cycle (1988) Finally, my action plan for such situation lest it happens again would be 1. As a student I should learn how to transfer specific information to the LD child. 2. When we are treating a specific patient than immediately refer to this model and make a quick decision before the child get nervous. 3. Gather additional information to rule out other possibilities or to affirm our decision. What Action that I should take which is correct: 1. Asking the patient the follow up questions 2. Try to understand our self very quickly that what child tries to express without showing them and with out making them nervous. Conclusion: The Gibb's model of reflection has been extremely helpful to me as from this model I am able to know that what should I learned more because if you still have the knowledge but unable to apply it cause of lack of practice and evidences that our knowledge is totally wasted. Gibb's model of reflections shows very easy and common way according to which apply action plans ,evaluation ,analysis and the whole cycle of it which really helps to communicate with LD child, Now I learned something from that experienced that where I was lacking behind so try to improve my self with recall my training. Still as a student do not have a well develop setup skills due to which mistake occurs. So I learnt from this experience that first try to understand the patient condition and than make familiar environment across them so that they can easily express to you what they want without hesitation and if I use these kind of behaviour with LD child than it also helping them to give courage and confidence to their mental status. References: 1. Gibbs Model Of Reflection, 1988,21 March 2009 http://www.health.uce.ac.uk/dpl/nursing/Placement%20Support/Model%20of%20Reflection.htm 2. Cornwell-NHS Trust 2006. ' Improving communication with people with learning disabilities'. 21 March 2009, http://www.cornwall.nhs.uk/CornwallPartnershipTrust/Latest_Information/Archived_News/2006_Press_Releases/250106_Improving_Communication_for_LD.pdf 3. Glasper, Edward Alan, James Richardson & Jim Richardson A textbook of children's and young people's nursing, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006 4. Goossens , Carol Aided communication intervention before assessment: a case study of a child with cerebral palsy ' Augmentative & Alternative Communication, Volume 5, Number 1, March 1989 , pp. 14-26. 5. Ferris-Taylor, R communication, in Gates, Bob (ed.) Learning Disabilities, 4th ed., pp. 255-284, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2003 6. G. Reid Lyon, "Learning Disabilities", The Future of Children SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Vol. 6 - No. 1 -1996, 22 March, 2009, < www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/vol6no1ART4.pdf > 7. "Responsiveness to Intervention and Learning Disabilities", National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, June 2007, 22 March, 2009, < www.ldaamerica.org/pdf/rti2005.pdf > 8. Ann R. Bradlow, Nina Kraus, "Speaking Clearly for Children with Learning Disabilities", Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.46 80-97, Feb 2003, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 22 March, 2009, 9. "About Learning Disabilities", Child Development Institute: Keeping Parents Informed, 22 March, 2009, 10. Kyla Boyse, "Learning Disabilities", University of Michigan HealthCare Department, June 2008, 22 March 2009, 11. Children with Learning Disabilities, 1999, 22 March 2009, 12. "Learning Disabilities", Family education, 22 March 2009, 13. Adult with LD, LD Online, 22 March 2009, 14. Mental Health and Growing Up, "Factsheet 10: The child with general learning disability: for parents and teachers", Royal College of Psychiatrists, 22 March 2009, 15. Parenting Children with Learning Disabilities, HelpGuide.Org, 22 March 2009, 16. Kleffner, John H., Hendrickson, Ed.D. & William D. "EFFECTIVE CLINICAL TEACHING". 2001. Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Pharmacy, University of Houston College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. 30 March 2009. Read More