Assignment 1 Communication Analysis

In this assignment I am going to be explaining how my own communication skills could have been used to make both the interactions more effective.

In my one – one interaction I felt I could have improved my posture because when I was talking to Lora I was sat on a footstool so I was slouching abit. This may have given to Lora wrong impression. To improve my posture I could have sat upright and done something with my arms as they were just sitting there in front of me resting on my legs. This means I would have been showing more interest to the conversation. Although by slouching I believe it showed that I was relaxed and comfortable to be sitting and conversation with Lora. I have taken notice of my posture and for further interactions that
I may take place in I will try and sit upright but if I start to feel uncomfortable I will adjust my position without slouching.

I don’t think I could have used gestures and facial expressions anymore than what I did in my interaction with lora because I nodded my head when she spoke and I also smiled at her abit. I do feel like I could do something with my hands because when I speak to someone I’ve just met I tend to fold my arms a lot which could look like I’m being defensive and moody, therefore I could learn to do something with my hands whilst speaking to people. I could learn to do more hand gestures such as open palms which means friendliness therefore it shows I’m happy and that I want to communicate with that person. To improve on my facial expressions I could smile a lot more to show that I am happy to be there speaking to that person and also to show that I am interested.

I believe I could have asked lora a few more questions than what I did because then I would have got a better understanding about her life when she was a child. Instead of me asking lora questions I just let her talk to me and tell me in her own time and at her own pace. If I had of asked more questions I would have got a better insight of how she may of felt when she was a hairdresser. I think one of the reasons I didn’t ask Maureen too many questions was because she had dementia and she may have felt a little embarrassed if she couldn’t have answered them. I used prompts in my one – one interaction. A prompt is when you encourage an individual to carry on talking. The prompts I used were nodding which may have meant yes and also smiling. To improve on the questions I use when speaking to someone I could ask more closed questions with children and also elderly people as it is easier for them to answer but I could use open question where I would then have to think about how I am going to ask these so that people can understand me.

I think I may need to improve on the words that I pick to speak to the elder generation because Maureen may not have understood some of the words that are used by the younger generation. There were a few words that I used with Maureen that she didn’t understand but when I had realised what I had done I chose a word that I knew she would understand. Some of the words I used that Maureen didn’t understand were; Maccies (McDonald’s), Indie/Rock (type of music) and also a BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich). This is hard to do because I’m used to speaking to people of my own age group therefore I don’t really think about what I’m saying because I know they will understand me. With Maureen I used a few closed questions but I used more open questions because that way I could get a better insight of Maureen’s life because she could use any answer she wanted rather than just yes or no.

I don’t think I need to change my tone of voice as it wasn’t too loud or too soft. Maureen was capable of hearing me although sometimes when I was speaking to her my voice went a bit because I had a sore throat so I kept losing my voice through mid-conversation. When I did lose my voice through conversation Maureen just asked me to repeat myself which I did gladly.

Overall I believe there are a few things that I need to improve on in my one – one communications but I believe I was successful in communicating with Maureen because we both understood each other.
I believe there are more things to improve on in my group communication because it was a lot harder as there was more than one person. It was also harder because there was Joe* who is a resident and then there were 4 staff members between 20 – 35. There were a few barriers in this communication because we were outside and it was raining, everyone was cold and also we all had umbrellas covering our faces.

My active listening wasn’t very good because everyone was talking over one another, I think that if I had spoken up then I could of grasped what was getting said but because I was only there on placement I thought that I shouldn’t but in although who I was talking to should have taken turns in speaking. It was also harder because Joe is partially deaf so I would have had to shout slightly just for Joe to hear me. I could have asked everyone who was outside if they could take it in turns to speak so that I could understand what was happening but I didn’t feel like I had the power to say that to the staff because they work there. For future reference I could show a more relaxed body posture because this could have been a reason why I wasn’t included as much in the
conversations.

My eye contact wasn’t very good because it was raining so there were umbrellas in the way of people’s faces and it’s harder to use eye contact within a group communication. The reason I didn’t use much eye contact was because everyone was speaking over one another so I kept glancing at everyone but my main focus was on Joe. This was because I wanted him to feel comfortable although it was cold outside.

I didn’t use touch in my group communication as I thought it wasn’t needed.
This was because we were all outside and it was cold. Everyone had an umbrella to themselves so you couldn’t really get close enough to anyone to touch them. Although I did help Joe get out of his chair when it was time to go back inside. To improve on this I believe I could have helped Joe a bit more with getting in and out of his chair because then I would have used touch more appropriately rather than just grabbing at his hand to help him walk inside. I didn’t grab at Joe’s hand because I knew he could walk on his own with the aid of a walking stick but if he had of asked me to hold his hand then I would have
done.

I believe my proximity wasn’t that good either because we was all sat round a garden table and as it was my first day I didn’t really want to sit too close to anyone. Another reason for my proximity being so poor was that we all had an umbrella to ourselves so we was sat spaced out so that we didn’t hit or catch each other with the umbrellas. My proximity affected communication because I couldn’t really hear what everyone was saying and also I believe that Joe couldn’t hear us therefore this would have been a breakdown in the communication cycle.

On the whole I think I can improve on all the things needed to make my one – ones and group communications a lot better and I should vary the age groups a little to get a better understanding of how and what really needs improving.