It is essential to pupils learning and development that relationships are forged between them and teaching assistants. Effective communication is important because by building sound relationships, children build confidence and are then more likely to access all areas of the curriculum. It is also important to model good relationships with other people in front of children because this is one of the ways that children and young people learn how to build and develop relationships outside of the class room.Good communication is the key to building positive relationships, allowing children to learn and understand effectively how to communicate with adults usually enables them to take this skill and use it in other areas. For example, building relationships with their peers through good communication skills.
This ultimately has a positive effect on many things such as, speaking and listening tasks, being able to empathise with other people and improving their confidence and self esteem.All good relationships are built on warmth, caring, mutual respect and a willingness to listen to and accept one another. Relationships with children are especially tender and deserve extra attention and care as children are developing their concepts of the world and their place in it. Children look to the relationships with caring adults in their lives to answer many questions.
They want to know, "Do I belong? " "Am I doing all right? " "Do you see who I am? " and "Am I safe with you? "It is just as important to communicate effectively with adults to build these positive relationships as it is with children and young people. This is because whilst working as a teaching assistant you need to communicate with other adults very often. These may be other members of staff, parents or outside agencies that work alongside schools. Being able to communicate effectively helps in building these relationships because it demonstrates that you are literate, professional, understanding, patient and empathetic. All key features in building relationships.
The principles of building positive relationships with children and young people are to enable the child; • To trust you. • To gain confidence in their own ability to forge relationships with adults. • To understand and learn how to build a positive relationship. • To enable the child understand the difference in role between the teaching assistant and pupil. (Relationship barriers.
) • When children have strong relationships they are less likely to show unwanted behaviour as we can understand and meet their needs.Teachers can plan more accurately as they understand the child’s developmental needs and have an understanding of their interests. • Children are more likely to participate in curriculum activities if they feel emotionally secure. If a child trusts you then they are much more likely to approach you with a problem or difficulty they may be having. This then means that if children can be happy and trust the adults who they are working with then they are much more likely to succeed academically.Children who learn how to build positive relationships with adults by observing and having them modelled to them are more likely to feel confident in them selves and have a higher self esteem because they will be communicating effectively with their peers and this will help build their ability to forge solid relationships outside of the classroom.
Building good professional relationships with children and young people also allows them to lean a difference between the relationships they may have at home with family members who are adults and the relationships they have with the staff who work with them on a daily basis.This is crucial for children to learn from the start of school as it sets good foundations for future development. The principles are much the same for building professional relationships with adults as they are with children. Ultimately you want the adult to trust you and know that what you are saying is true or what you have said you will do will be carried out. Different factors effect how we communicate differently. For example, a student who I work with comes from a family of travellers and recently their was a small dispute between the school and the parents over how little time the child was attending school for.
Child X would often miss five days at a time of school and would therefore miss out on vital parts of the curriculum. When the head arranged a meeting with child X’s family to discuss this situation, it was met with a very negative response and a view that ‘their child did not need a full education because the child would one day work in a trade where it would not use any of the skills or academic knowledge learnt at school. ’ This is an example of a situation where the way in which you communicate would be different.A lot more time and patience was needed in order to make the family understand the crucial need for a child to attend school.
It was also a very slow process to build a positive relationship with the family due to such a negative opinion of the national curriculum. Another example of how different social and cultural differences effect the way people communicate is a parent of a pupil I work quite closely with can not read. This is a social difference because it effects the way she communicates socially with other parents at the school and also the staff who work their.We can not communicate with this parent in the same way we would do with the other parents the majority of the time by sending letters home with children, outlining any events or activities happening on a termly basis but more importantly, any problems or concerns we may have with the pupil. I personally take the time after school to take the Mother to one side and verbally tell her of any events or information she may need to know.
Since this has been happening I have a very positive professional relationship with the mother and I believe her confidence has grown.Another side effect of her not being able to read means that her child, pupil A has a very low reading ability themselves. We now take extra time each day to make sure a member of staff hears the child read on a daily basis as we understand that the child will not be reading at home. The school have also put the parent in touch with a local college who hold evening classes for adults to help teach them the basic reading and writing skills. The skills needed to communicate with children and young people are; • Good eye contact, • Body language (getting down to the child’s level and relaxing your body to show you are calm and non confrontational), • Good listening skills, • Using appropriate language, • Good tone of voice for the situation at the time.
(stern and strong for discipline and soft and gentle when dealing with a distressed child), • Being able to honour and promises or commitments made to a child. This helps build good trust and understanding. • Allowing the child to explain things to you at their own speed and ability. (not just rushing them on and finishing sentences for them. This would only have a negative effect on building trust.) Whilst working with children you have to be able to adapt the way you communicate with them depending on factors such as the age of the child, the context of communication and any communication differences.
I worked last year in a class of year two’s then in September I began working with year six’s. I noticed very rapidly how I needed to change the way I communicated with them. With the infants I would often talk very softly to them and give them simple and direct instructions that were easy to follow. I would use age appropriate language and at times when suitable I would talk to them about their interests outside of school and what types of things or characters they were into at the time.
When I moved up to the older juniors I soon found that it wasn’t appropriate to talk to them in such a young manner and that the older children would look for you to talk to them in a more mature way and show them the same amount of respect but in a different way. The vocabulary I chose to use would consist of more adult language and I felt I didn’t have to put an overly soft tone on my voice. I would still crouch down at a table and make eye contact and use soft body language as I feel the main key elements of professional relationships and communicating with children are much the same, it’s just the way in which you deliver the conversation or non verbal communication.2.3 The main differences between communicating with adults and children are; • The context and vocabulary used.
• The soft understanding tone used with children who may be distressed. • The level and depth the conversation may take. • The topic of conversation. • Some young children may need more nonverbal communication to help them understand than verbal, whereas adults may be able to understand and communicate more with less body language and hand gestures etc. • The method of communication with adults may involve telephone or email.2.
4 Meeting the communication needs of adults can sometimes be a problem, like I have stated previously with the parent who can not read and the extra steps that need putting in place to make sure she access’s all the information every other parent can. It is always important to make sure the parent feels they are not being discriminated against because they may not be able to read for example. Some parents who may not speak English as a first language will need extra support and more time taken when communicating with them.Not just rushing through something you need to tell them and moving on. I find it always helpful to recap with parents and carers to guarantee they understand what you are telling them. Sometimes due to lack of confidence people just agree but don’t always understand.
You must always be patient and take as many attempts as you can and try and communicate in different ways until you are sure the adult understands fully what you are trying to convey. Taking the time to understand the root cause of a conflict is often very important in successfully resolving it. Modelling the type of response you’d like to see the children demonstrate as they deal with argumentative situations – calm, understanding, accepting of the fact that disputes happen and that that’s ok. Allowing them to express anger and grievance rationally. It is important to listen and hear what is being said. Having a previously agreed set of rules can help children to set their own boundaries and expectations for each other.
Understanding instances that trigger disagreements. For adults these are similar but it is also important to be aware of the grievance policy should a parent want to make a complaint. The aim of the confidentiality, data protection and disclosure of information policy is to protect the child at all times and to give all staff involved clear, unambiguous guidance as to their legal and professional roles and to ensure good practice throughout the school which is understood by pupils, parents/carers and staff. Explaining the importance of reassuring children, young people and adults of the confidentiality of shared information and the limits of this is important because it helps build up a trust. It doesn’t lead people into a situation where they disclose something and then find you can not keep it to yourself but it also allows them to know that some things can be kept confidential and that enables people to build more trust and discuss a situation with a member of staff which may be confidential. There are times when confidentiality protocols must be breached for the safety and well being of a child or young person.
If a child or young person discloses and form of abuse then it is paramount that you inform the child straight away that the information can not stay between yourself and the child and explain in an appropriate way why you must tell another member of staff. Constantly reassuring the child or young person that it is not their fault and as much as you want them to continue trusting you, there are certain situations where it is not fair to the child to keep the information to yourself. In this situation it is also vitally important to not ask the child any leading questions because if the case was to go to court then the evidence would not stand up had it been asked as a question which could be deemed leading in any way.
