My experiences over the years with interviews,
colleagues, students, parents, or just meeting new people in general has really
taught me a lot about communication skills.
From these experiences, two very important factors regarding
communication skills which will be necessary for leading a policy change are
nonverbal and listening. According to
the Effective Communication article,
effective communication helps us to understand another person’s situation and
build trust and respect for that person (http://www.helpguide.org/mental/effective_communication_skills.htm). Nonverbal
communication involves using body language that enables the person you’re
communicating with to feel comfortable, engaged, and free to express their
emotions. Characteristics of nonverbal
language are uncrossed arms, steady eye contact, pleasant smile, vocal tone,
muscle tension and breathing, patting someone on the back, etc. (http://www.helpguide.org/mental/effective_communication_skills.htm). All of these gestures
signal to a person that the other person is interested in helping their
situation the best way possible. Listening is also a very important
effective communication skill. As an educator,
when I teach a new skill and conduct a brief class discussion afterwards, when
students respond correctly to questions from just listening, that lets me know
I have effectively communicated the basic background knowledge information
pertaining to the skill; when a person can clearly paraphrase or repeat verbatim
what someone said, positive vibes are automatically created because they feel
important and like someone has actually taken their situation seriously. These are the types of emotions that effective
communication should produce.
After taking the personal communications test, my
results indicated that I have a little anxiety about certain communication
skills but not all of them; therefore, I’m going to work on improving the
skills that I am comfortable with and work on improving the ones that I shy
away from. Launching a new policy issue
is going to require nonverbal and verbal effective communication skills due to
the fact that several audiences must be reached. These audiences include, parent, educators,
family members, students, school administrators, community leaders, state and
federal officials, etc. All of these
people play an important role in increasing parent and family agencies in early
childhood education. Their support will be
critical when implementing new educational programs, parent and student
academic training sessions and when dealing with funding program
opportunities.
Reference:
Helpguide.org. (n.d.). Effective communication. Retrieved
October 15, 2013, fromhttp://www.helpguide.org/mental/effective_communication_skills.htm
Jessica L. Beal
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteHow do you think some of the communication skills highlighted in the article that require observation (non-verbal) can be effectively addressed through social media or in on-line classes?
Dr. Callahan,
DeleteI like this question because I had to really think about how non-verbal communication would be expressed effectively through on-line classes when most people in on-line classes never have face-to-face contact. An effective way for non-verbal communication to be expressed through using social media and in online classes is through interactive media such as skype, face time (chat), web cams, live video chat, and other means of live interactive media tools.
J. Beal
You mentioned, “after taking the personal communications test, my results indicated that I have a little anxiety about certain communication skills but not all of them; therefore, I’m going to work on improving the skills that I am comfortable with and work on improving the ones that I shy away from.” What communication skills are you the most comfortable using to advocate your policy issue? Which communication styles do you shy away from when addressing an important issue?
ReplyDeleteDebi,
DeleteThe communication skills that I am most comfortable with are verbal one on one communication and written communication skills. I tend to shy away from public speaking because of a speech impediment that I have developed in grade school. Now that I am an adult, the negative emotional effect that my speech disorder had on me during my childhood, adolescent,and early adult years has become less of a problem. However, the fear of public speaking has not totally disappeared, I would be more ampt to do it in front of a small crowd first and then advancing to larger crowds.
J. Beal
Hi Jessica, body language is a very important way to communicate with others. When I am talking with the kids or adults in my classroom I can tell when they have had enough with me talking because I never get eye contact again. That is the point when I say they have had enough of my horrible voice. Listening is another powerful way of communication. My mother always say are "Listening to what I am saying and Are you hearing what you are saying?" In our field as educators these are two important factors in getting our message across to others.
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteInteresting you highlighted non verbal communication. My KINDERGARTENERS had a lesson on that this past week. One little boy was having and issue and displayed his displeasure by rolling his eyes. I mentioned that wasn't nice and the little boy said, "I didn't say anything." In which I responded your body talked. He looked at me as well as his classmates and we had an impromptu lesson on non verbal language. We focused on the positive things we can say with non verbal language.
Sharon Lloyd
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that the quiz indicated you have little anxiety with communication with others; my results were the same. I reflected on that and discovered that I definitely have certain weak areas, one of which is managing stress when I have to speak in front of large audiences. Is there a specific area you feel you are weakest in? What type of activities could you partake in that might strengthen your weak areas?
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteListening skills are very essential and they need to be trained in some of our children. I work on listening skills with so many of my clients in therapy. What I have found is that the attention span of many children is so short due to diet, technology, possible deficiencies, sensory issues, lack of structure in home environment, and many other factors. Listening and attention work hand in hand. If your children weren't paying attention to you when you were telling them the story and were not able to answer the questions you may have interpreted their incorrect responses as not listening. However, there is a very interesting flip side to it. Some children with autism can look in different places around the room and not directly at the person that is delivering a message and still answer questions that would typically show that they were listening. Another interesting fact is that many children with autism cannot listen and look at an individual at the same time. Those are two very challenging tasks for children with autism and either they do one or the other but they cannot do both at the same time. It's very interesting. Listening and attention are very important to communicating important messages.
Hi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteListening is such an important component to effective communication. I like how you provided the example of being able to repeat what others say as a way to show you were listening. This technique helps people to feel heard and understood. Validating other's views and perspectives allows them to feel respected and helps build trust. When people trust each other, there are more opportunities to disagree without conflicts. That is, a person will not feel judged for what they believe because they know that you have valued and respected their beliefs. All of this cannot happen if you are not willing to start with attentive listening. I agree!
-Jessica C.
Hi Jessica,
DeleteListening is what children their parents to do at home. Listening is an essential part of effective communication because it shows concern and understanding. Sometimes we as humans often try to verbalize our opinions about certain situations and all the person wants is for us to listen. We build relationships on various types of levels through effective communication; and in order to communicate listening has to be effective on both ends. From experience, what are some facial expressions and body language indicators that let a person know someone is listening?
J. Beal