Care Settings
To establish communications with either someone that you are caring for or who you may work with there are two groups these are verbal and non-verbal means of communication
We also have the five main senses these are
Visual – Seeing
Auditory – Hearing
Olfactory – Smelling
Kinaesthetic – Feeling
Gustatory – Tasting
The verbal means of communication are:
Vocabulary, words and different languages
Tone of voice
Pitch (for example high or low)
The non-verbal means of communication are:
Eye contact
Signs, symbols or pictures
Writing
Using objects
Touch
Physical gestures
Body language and emotions
Lip reading
Here are some different barriers to consider
Sensory impairment (for example, deafness, blindness or both)
Culture (for example, speaking different languages or poor English)
Religion (for example, men not permitted to support females with personal care)
Health issues (for example, mental ill health like Dementia)
Background noise (for example, radio, television, other people, machines)
Emotions (for example, difficulty in being able to listen to others)
Stress (for example, failing to recognise what is happening)
Strong accents (for example, from a different part of England that you find difficult to understand)
Specialist communication techniques (for example, sign language is used)
Prejudice (for example, allowing your beliefs to pre judge a situation)
When we communicate with someone in our care or in work colleagues we always need to respond to them so that they know that we are listening and it is always good to show the people we are talking to that they have are full attention.
If there is a barrier that it is making it hard to communicate with an individual then if possible we remove the barrier if that isn’t possible we have communication methods that can overcome the barrier like if a person was blind I wouldn’t show them pictures I would speak to them or have something in