Developing positive relationships Essay

Developing positive relationships is important within most situations in life, a good way of ensuring these positive relationships progress is to ensure you have effective communication. When working with children if you complicate things it can lead to the child becoming confused as to what is expected of them. Make sure the language that you use is age appropriate to avoid confusion. You may be able to see if the child has understood your request by either checking that your instructions have been carried out or simply by asking the child â€Å"do you understand? and asking them to relay back what you have asked. Communication is a two way thing and to have a positive relationship with somebody you will also need to listen to them. Having eye contact and sitting down with a child will reassure them that you are listening and will reassure them that they can come to you with their needs. When dealing with young people again you will need to make your communication age appropriate but you may need to alter your techniques slightly. Secondary school age and above is when a lot of young people feel they are going through some of their hardest times. They will have strong changes in their hormones which can lead to mood swings and irritability, transition to secondary school or home life problems. A big grievance of young people is that they wish to be treated as adults, so even though they are not of adult age to form a good relationship you may need to approach situations cautiously and take into account things that a young person may be going through. Adults can sometimes forget the importance of communicating with each other which can lead to a number of problems. When working you need o ensure all of your colleges are certain of things going on or instructions being given, this can help to keep communication problems to a minimum. It is vital that other adults have understood what you have said and interpreted it in the correct way to have positive relationships and to reduce misunderstandings. People find it hard to communicate with people they do not trust or have a good relationship with, this can lead to a communication breakdown and as a consequence cause problems. No matter which age group of people you come into contact with or work with there are a number of factors to keep to which will help to promote healthy relationships. To gain a persons trust you will need to be honest with them and show respect to all things important to the person. You should take into consideration that people have different beliefs and values and although something may not be of any importance to you it will be to others. Another thing to consider is that at times people may have added pressures such as extra work loads or problems at home which could effect their mood. Asking people if they’re ok and taking some time out if possible to listen to them is a good way to build a relationship and will show you care, this could help to build up trust. Even though there are a lot of ways of improving communication and building up healthy relationships there are also barriers which you could face which make this hard. There are a number of factors such as social, professional and cultural differences which could change the context which we communicate. Many things can be thought about when considering differences which could change the change the way we communicate socially at work, people come from all different areas and backgrounds and you will come across different accents or English as a second language. There are also different social classes and family set ups which you could take into account, if there had been a breakdown in the family you may not get to see somebody as much. Professionally you may need to change the way you communicate through lack of time, this may be solved by using other forms such as email. The school may communicate with parents through letters home and even text messaging now. When speaking to people outside of your profession you will need to ensure that you did not inundate them with jargon that they do not understand. Different cultures find different ways of communicating acceptable and unacceptable, in some cultures it is considered rude to not look the person you are talking to in the eye and others eye contact is not acceptable. People having English as a second language and not being very fluent or confident in speaking in English may prove to be a communication barrier.