If a child is able to motivate themselves (intrinsic motivation), this can make a significant difference to the relationship between the young person and the professional, along with their view and attitude towards a subject/activity/task that they are working on. Effectively, this bypasses the need for extra work to motivate the young person as they can already see the benefits of working hard to complete the task. However, not all young people are self-motivated (for various reasons) and need motivation to come from someone …show more content…
else. This is called extrinsic motivation. This student will need to have a trusted adult to motivate them; therefore it is extremely important that staff are able to build up a good, positive relationship with this young person.
Where an intrinsic student can see the benefit of the activities they are completing, an extrinsic student will probably not and will needs these benefits showing/explaining to them from someone else.
To summarize this, the relationship with a young person, as in most cases, it the only way that motivation can come what it is not already present within the student. The fact that the young person sees this member of staff in a positive way may give them the motivation to complete tasks in order to please the adult or gain praise or attention from them.
When a young person (or group of) is motivated, the possibility for learning to take place is greatly increased. This included the ability to stay on task for longer periods of time and the resilience to work at a difficult activity. This can also be built up by giving students an achievable but challenging task. When this has been completed, the feeling of success can be used as a motivation to complete the next task that may be a higher level or take more time to complete.
As well as the young person being prepared to learn, us professionals must be as well. First of all we must be presented well and come prepared for sessions. Our body language needs to
be appropriate as we can easily give out a signal that we did not intend to through our movements, facial expressions and/or eye contact. We must also use our tone, pitch and speed of voice/speech correctly. If we do not, the student may not understand what we have said/mean/imply and may become confused. This is also true for students with SEN. We can also look at the aspects above in students to gain extra information about them. We can spot any unspoken issues that may affect the young person. If we are able to do this, and can speak to the young person about them, this will also help build or maintain a positive professional relationship with them. It shows the young person that we care about them.
All of the aspects discussed above are factors that we should be aware of when supporting the learning of children and young people. As well as this, the following strategies, if used effectively, can increase the ability for students to learn individually, as a small group or in a whole class environment. The first of which is the way that we explain subject/activity information and instructions. To be effective those explanations should build on previous knowledge, taking into account the level of understanding the young person/group have at the time. It should describe and define any major terms, concepts or key words to make sure that these are understood. All information should be given using language that is understandable to the children and young people. For example, pitching information at A level standard to GCSE students may cause unnecessary misunderstanding for the young people.
In return, the children and young people