Active Listening Skills

Child safety officers must communicate with individuals and families in crisis; good communication skills are essential to achieve the best possible outcomes within a range of challenging circumstances. Interpersonal skills of listening, questioning and feedback are crucial when working as a child safety officer as they allow the officer to clarify, gain knowledge and understand. Active listening allows the child safety officer to clarify the child’s needs with empathy; doing this builds a trusting relationship. The interpersonal skill of questioning further allows the child to gain knowledge, make decisions and effectively problem solve. Lastly, feedback allows the child safety officer to clarify understanding and encourage the child with
Active listening is defined as listening and showing understanding and meaning of what the speaker has said (Eunson 2012). Active listening allows both speaker and listener to form a bond and develop a trusting relationship (DeVito 2011). Further, active listening allows the speaker to show empathy through maintaining eye contact and making appropriate verbal and nonverbal responses to show engagement and clarify understanding (DeVito 2011). Showing empathy is an important skill when working as a child safety officer; it is essential to listen nonjudgmentally with an open view of understanding while the speaker is speaking (DeVito 2011). When communicating with children it is important to engage in active listening rather than talking over the speaker; doing this shows empathy towards the speaker whilst they are speaking (Bannister, Huntington, Jennings, Cossa & Kirk 2002). Having said this, listening critically is just as crucial during communication, as it allows the listener to provide evaluation (DeVito 2011). It is important to understand that children think differently to adults; which means they can easily be distracted or lose concentration (Bannister et al. 2002). Therefore, having interactive conversations and engaging in activities with meaning is essential to building a relationship built on empathy (Bannister et al. 2002).
Feedback further assists the child with applying positive reinforcement and clarifying understanding. Feedback is defined as ‘the support and critique provided in response by one person to another’ (Eunson 2010, p. 32). Feedback can be given in many ways; it can be either brief, lengthy, formal or informal (Eunson 2010). Giving effective feedback can provide positive actions and behaviours to the listener (De Janasz 2014). Providing effective feedback is crucial for the learning development as it can encourage positive reinforcement for future actions (De Janasz 2014). As a child's social development is not as advanced as an adult’s, it is important to have a sensitive approach to children as a professional, doing this will result in a more sufficient outcome with the child (Jones 2003). Tharinger et al. (2008) found that ‘fables’ meaning myths, fairy tales and other fantasy talk has significantly helped feedback be understandable to children. Direct feedback can sometimes be too much for children to take in as they can easily be overwhelmed (Tharinger et al. 2008). Using fables when giving feedback allows children to feel understood with the speaker as it gives the effect of accurate mirroring (Tharinger et al. 2008). If the child has been given effective positive feedback the outcome of them handling future tasks will be much more manageable