Children : Communication With Children

Revised Thesis Statement: Incorporating therapeutic art-based interventions effectively develops coping skills, self expression, open communication, and begins the healing process for children who have experienced

1. In your own words summarise the major learning points from the whole of the study programme with particular reference to:

The world that we live in is perilous and full of danger. During those times of danger, traumatic events can occur. People from all walks of life have had trouble dealing with this kind of trauma and can be either scarred or changed by it. This is especially true for children. We tend to overlook children and try to focus on adults when it comes to traumatic events. However, studies have shown that even children are affected by these problems and need assistance in getting over them. Mental health therapists and psychologists have been doing research and developing techniques on this age group that is adolescence. This essay will exhibit several professionals that are studying this matter and developing which technique is best for the children in regards to their treatment.

- Discussions and teaching sessions of children washing their hand prior to meals, and after the toilet.

In The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog author Bruce Perry demonstrates how understanding the brain’s inner workings and development can help bring traumatized children from heartbreak to hope, while always balancing that hope with caution. In his book Perry illustrates how empathy is vital to healthy child development. There has been a decrease in the amount of healthy adults involved in a child’s life than in decades before. Families are smaller, teacher to pupil ratio has increased, and so the number of human-to-human interactions where children are being taught and nurtured has suffered. If you are an adult who is involved with children in your daily life, parent, teacher, law enforcement, etc., and you know that a child has been exposed to something that is potentially traumatic the first thing you should be aware of is that not all traumatic events automatically lead to disastrous mental health outcomes. In fact the majority do well, but for these successful outcomes they do need your attention, support, and awareness. What makes children get better following a trauma is connection with other human beings. Connections to people who are kind, patient, present, but not necessarily psychologically insightful, is at the core of a successful therapeutic relationship.

Trauma is one of the many issues facing children of all ages today. Trauma can be defined as any negative experience that causes a child psychological or emotional stress or damage. Exposure to trauma can hinder development in many areas for children, including brain development, social development, and emotional development. The purpose of this study was to determine what impacts trauma-informed care practices had on students in a second grade classroom. Throughout the study all students had access to a calm corner, which is a place they could go if they were feeling overwhelming emotions. Students participated in daily morning community meetings. Students were also taught direct

Think about your early childhood education (or your child’s early education), was it flexible to suit individual learning experiences or were children required to conform to the teacher’s methods of teaching? If you answered the latter, do you think the former would improve the quality of education? The initial years of education are crucial to learning, development and growth, during these first years children’s experiences shape their learning methods and they are able to learn rapidly, for this, early childhood educators must use teaching methods that are suitable for each child. Teachers must consider the attitude they bring to the classroom; how it affects children’s learning and the value, of the information and knowledge that

Unit 3.3.1 – How communication with children and young people differs across different age ranges and stages of development

To communicate effectively with children and young people, you must be able to demonstrate the following skills;

In my life, I have always felt that I was exceptional at communicating with others. I found it very easy to understand what people were trying to convey and express while also being able to share my thoughts with them in a clear and concise manner. This led to me having a lot of success in building relationships with people at work and in my social life; but what about with children? It never occurred to me that I would need to take a completely different approach with children and I had to learn those skills quickly when I was asked to step up as the head coach for my son’s youth football team. Although it was challenging, coaching youth football afforded me the opportunity to learn how to communicate with children more effectively.

Talking and listening are essential life skills. The ability to talk in order to communicate and exchange ideas and information, to negotiate with others, to express feelings and emotions, allows human beings to function well in the world and to be full and active members of society. Communication, to be effective, requires the ability to listen, to understand and to make sense of what is heard. On the personal level, when we listen, we give attention to the other person in such a way as to allow them to feel heard, understood and therefore respected. In that way, listening is more than

1) 1.1 Effective communication is important in developing positive relationships with children, young people and adults in all walks of life and at any age whether it be with relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues, associates or even total strangers. Also, effective language skills are essential for children to access the curriculum. In the classroom, spoken language is the main way that teachers teach and children learn. Therefore if the skill of communicating in an effective manner isn’t learned or grasped at an early age then it could lead to various complications in terms of interacting with other people, be it in the home or

Child therapy differs greatly from adult therapy in a way where in adult therapy, a person is expected to talk about their feelings while the therapist sits there to listen and take notes. With child therapy, there is no way to do that without the child getting bored about sitting still and talking about their feelings. According to child therapist Douglas Green, child therapy should be done in the language of play. Children are more expressive about their feelings and they grow a lot more when they are playing games, with toys, engaging in activities, through drawing, and some other forms of art (Green, 2012). In other words, the child will recover and grow more from the divorce of their parents or the death of their dog or family issues in general if they link up with a therapist and be able to express themselves by engaging in any type of play, than talking about their feelings. By doing this, a therapist will get more feedback from the child instead of forcing them to just sit still and ask them questions. Play therapy, along with other methods specifically designed for child therapy, focuses on the child’s emotional well-being, it serves as a healthy way to express their concerns and feelings, and it helps improve their relationship with those around them especially their families.

This paper was developed from findings of an extended study propagates combining art therapy with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as effective treatment model for sexual abused children. It was chosen for this literature review as the paper focuses on the unique characteristics of art therapy that aid in making this an effective model (Pifalo, 2006; Pifalo, 2007). This paper extrapolates that sexually abused exhibit a wide range of symptoms that can be identified under the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The article explains that art therapy capitalizes on a child’s natural ability to create, thereby facilitating rapport building, within a short period of time (Pifalo, 2007). The paper includes illustrations to provide evidence on how art therapy speeds affective processing Figure 1: “Inside/Outside Box” (Pifalo, 2007, p172). Through the shoe box example, it suggests that an ordinary shoebox with its “inside/out” aspect can provide a solid vehicle to express and contain feelings that are appropriate for sharing (Pifalo, 2007). The study further claims that by helping the child identify and express the emotion, art therapy facilitates coping skills. By combined effect of desensitising trauma and reconstructing the trauma narrative that child is able to process the traumatic experience without significant emotional distress (Pifalo, 2007).

A person’s childhood has an enormous impact on the person they become when they grow up. Because of this, it is essential that do our best to give our children the best childhood that they can have in order to nurture successful adults. One way we can do this is by giving children the attention they need. In 2010 the average amount of time that parents spent with their children each week was 13.7 hours (Schulte). This must change because paying attention to children is essential for a number of reasons.