Task 1: Understand the principles of developing positive relationships with children, young people and adults.
1.1 Explain why effective communication is important in developing positive relationships with children, young people and adults.
Effective communication is the most fundamental key to working with children, young people, and adults. It helps them to see that you are on the same page as them and that you actually want to help them! This way, they will build a relationship that is based on trust with you. It is very important that once you have their trust, you maintain it by talking and communicating with them, it should be an active process that involves time for them to listen, process and respond. You should always communicate with them appropriately to match the stage of development, personal circumstances, and needs of the person you’re talking to.
1.2 Explain the principles of relationship building with children, young people and adults.
Positive relationships need to be nurtured and worked on and do not happen over night; they need to be built on every day. Some parts of it we might do automatically without actively thinking whilst others may require some efforts from us.
A main point to consider is that the child or adult must be comfortable in our company, once that is, they will be more likely to communicate successfully.
We must also remember to take the time to consider the other side. You may be working with a child or adult who take longer to process any information given to them. If they realise that you are willing to wait and give them this ‘processing time’, which could help them to want to have a positive relationship with you!
Since I work with PMLD children and I know that for them to process long complicated sentences is very hard, therefore we stick to just key words. This way the children understand what we are trying to say which would encourage them to want to strengthen the bond between us.