Communication and Professional Skills

Unit 5 Communication and professional skills within child care and education D1/ D2 Select four aspects of professional practice and give reasons why each chosen aspect is essential and who this may affect. There are many aspects of professional practice, these aspects are very important to be followed. Working in partnership with health care and other professionals: working closely with the other professionals in the setting is important for the safety of the children. Communicating about the needs of the children will help us to help the children with their development and help us to keep track of their development’s stage. Also working as a team being consistent about the decisions made will give the children a good role model and routine, otherwise children can get very confuses and lost. Respecting confidentiality policy is very important to keep children safe, passing information to the right person, keeping information safe/locked, using it only when necessary, and aiming to help the child. Information misused can cause a great trouble to the child and the adult; therefore, we practitioners need to make sure all information are kept safe and confidential. Attitudes to work is about being a good role model, it is a big part of educating children, we must always remember that, children will repeat everything that we do or say. As adults and practitioners it is important to be a good role model, children also learn copying us, learn to talk, to posture their selves, to dress up, to eat, to express their selves. Being a good role model is about dressing up appropriately for the job, having a good posture, speaking clear (not swearing, not shouting), respecting the children and the team we work with. Good time keeping and attendance is very important for the smooth running in the setting, also to keep children’s routine and follow the plans for activities. To be on time, it is important to make sure you live home with time enough to be at work on time, if necessary live five minutes earlier. It is better to be earlier than later. D3 – Include examples of how you are developing the knowledge or skills that will improve each selected aspect of professional practice During lunch time children are very likely to hurt their selves, knowing who the first-aider person are and where they are is very useful and helpful, because whenever there is a child with problem I can go straight to them and help the child. I have being learning to observe the children and to communicate with health carers and other professionals, how to posture myself and how to respond to children’s misbehave. There are some children with learning difficulties in my classroom, and to protect them the school has a system, which separates the children by table colours and we know that, there is an specific colour for that special needs table and it is done this way to protect the children from being bullied by other children or abused in any way. It is a way of keeping information about them confidential, while acknowledging their needs. So I have learned different ways of dealing with information and still keeping it confidential. I have being learning how to posture myself around the children and how to respond to them when they misbehave. At this stage I have learned how to listen to them, the importance of PIN No: 10/681015 them listening to me, the use of appropriate language, to look at after my posture when I talk to them. They look at me and they may want to be like me, for that reason it is important that I am a good role model for them, having a good attitude to work. During my work placement I have learned to be a good time keeper, I have improved my time, waking up earlier, going to bed as earlier as possible to get a good rest, to prepare my lunch the night before, to organise what I am earing the night before. Children do notice when we are late and it can affect them, as the other professionals in the setting. There are always ways of making sure we are on time. D4 – Include examples of your effective communication with children and with parents I have helped a child to do her maths exercise, she didn’t want to do it, so I told her that her parents would not be very happy if she didn’t do her work and that she would want to see them happy. She thought for a moment and finished her exercise in two minutes. When communicating with parents I know that I must be respectful, sensitive to their feelings, because some parents may be more difficult to deal with and it is difficult for them to hear that their children is not doing as good as the other children or have some learning difficulties or are special needs children. In the nursery before there was an 18 months little girl, she was really good, helpful, smart, friendly; she was always playing nicely with the other children and smiling. One day on the way out I’ve met her mum and told her that her child was really good and that she was very kind, smart, and helpful. I told her about her development and how good she was; her mum was very happy and was very thankful to me and proud of her daughter. When I communicate with children I get down to their level, look at them in the eyes, listen to them carefully, speak slowly and clear, give them the chance to talk and I am very patient with them. D5 – Provide evidence to show how you maintain confidentiality in work with children and parents The way we maintain confidentiality in the present setting, where I work at the moment, is following the school’s policies and procedures. All the confidential information about the children/ families are kept/ locked in the main office and only authorised persons can have access to it and only if necessary, to help the children. If there is a need to talk to the family or another professional about a child’s problem, it is crucial that the persons involved go to a private room, where they can speak privately, keeping the conversation confidential. All observations that are written about the children must be kept safe/ locked and only shared with parents/ families, supervisors, or health care professionals (if needed). To protect the children, I shall always refer to my supervisor and ask how to proceed if there is any sign of abuse or if I notice any unusual behave about the children. D6 – Provide evidence of ways that you are preparing for employment and finding information about professional development The way I am preparing for employment is developing my skills in child care through out the course, learning and developing my knowledge, also acquiring experience at the work placement. I am working on my Curriculum Vitae, making it presentable, and putting all the information about my experience. I am looking on the internet to find out about agencies and job offers, to find out about settings, salary rate, opportunities. I am doing researches about the settings, the history of the setting, how they work, if it is registered with offstead, to make sure I will be working within a good practice. I am also looking at news papers and magazines. We had an employment agency, specialised in child care, which came to the college to talk to us about the opportunities and offered us to register with them and they will help us to find a job in child care, I will be registering myself with this agency, as they seem to be really good and have good job offers. To increase my career opportunities I am intending to continue my studies in child care, I am looking into studying level 3 in child care, because I know it will help me to enhance my opportunities. D7 – Show an understanding of diversity and inclusive practice An inclusive approach to work with children means that you are able to meet and understand the needs of each child. Every child needs some individual time and attention, and no child should become a favourite within the setting. An inclusive approach involves thinking about the way in which each child feels valued and has a feeling of belonging. You will need to make sure that your interactions with every child are positive and that you consciously think about each child to make sure that they are not left out. † (Cache level 2, Child care and education, Tassoni. P, page 216). When working in partnership with health care and other professionals, to respect diversity and follow inclusive practice it is very important to respect the child and the family’s background; it is very important to be fair and non judgemental and to keep information confidential. If a child has any kind of illness, special needs, suffering any kind of abuse, to protect the child this information must be shared only with the people involved to help the child and nobody else, it is also important to treat the child as much as normal as possible, so the child will not feel left out. In the case of having problematic parents/ families, we need to be very discreet and if needed talk to the parents/families, making sure we go to a private place, where the conversation can be private. It is very important to follow the policies and procedures equally with all children and parents/ families to make sure they feel treated the same and hopefully be able to help them. It is very important to make sure that children with disabilities or learning difficulties are involved in the activities, providing suitable resources for their needs and treating them as equally as possible to the other children. It is important to make sure that settings will provide diverse equipment, materials, to reflect all religions, cultures and backgrounds, to make all children and family feel comfortable when coming to the settings. Another way to show good practice is being a good role model, treating all the other professionals with respect and equally; treating children and families all the same, despite their background, religion, culture, wealth or health. To be a good role model we should not discriminate anyone, children will copy us and hopefully learn to not discriminate anyone. C1- Explain how your developing knowledge or skills in each selected aspect will improve your professional practice I have being learning throughout this course the importance of working in partnership with health care, parents and other professionals. Developing this knowledge helps me to improve my professional practice in communicating well with children, parents and staff, building a good relationship with them based on respect within the setting and professionalism. Having acquired the knowledge about confidentiality, I now understand how to maintain confidentiality and why it is important. I have learned about my setting’s confidentiality policy and I observe the other staff, so I know what to do and I am improving myself more and more. Respecting the policies and following the procedures of the setting make me aware of my responsibilities for protecting children, parents and other team members, improving in this way my professional practice. Learning about been a good role model helps me to be a positive role model around the children, because they will learn from the things I say and do. When they see me being polite, they may want to behave the same way, so this way I will be helping them to learn about manners and being good. Time keeping is very important in every moment of our lives, but when working with children it is essential to be a good time keeper, this way the children’s routine won’t be disturbed. Been on time is also related to be a good role model. B1 – Explain why the examples of communication with children and parents were effective – When I started to do an exercise with the child I wasn’t sure of what to do and I was getting very frustrated because she wouldn’t do it. When I had the idea of talking about her parents been proud of her it made her do the exercises very quick and for that reason I believe my communication was very effective and gave me a result, which was to get the child to do her work. In this case my communication was very effective because I’ve managed to get the child to do her work. I believe that the child’s mother was very pleased to hear how well her child was doing and she felt very positive about her child’s development and also felt that she could count on us at the nursery to share information about her child’s development. For that reason I am confident about the effectiveness of my communication with this mother. In this case It was very ef fective, because I communicated to the child’s mother, giving her information and making her aware of her child’s development. B2 – Explain the importance of maintaining confidentiality when working with children and parents It is very important to maintain confidentiality to protect children and keep them safe and their families. As a practitioner I have the responsibility to keep the information safe/ confidential, it is important to build a trustworthy relationship with the family, it shows that I am respecting the policies and procedures of the setting. It is also important to maintain the rights of the children and the family. Disclosure of confidential information can cause lots of distress to the child, family, myself and other team worker. Confidentiality is important because in the setting we may have access to some personal information related to families, which if disclosed may put the child in danger, causing harm or cause distress to the family. A – Explain the reasons for preparing for employment and for finding information about professional development The way I am preparing for employment is making sure that I am learning as much as I can throughout my course and looking into further development, as in going to level 3 in child care. I am working on my CV, to make it presentable and to give the right information to the employers. I am researching the internet to find out what employers are looking for, to make sure I will have the right answer when going for an interview. It is important to prepare myself, because on this way I will have the right tools to go for an interview and a better chance to get a good/ suitable job. It is important to keep myself informed about new policies or any changes that may happen within the early years foundation guide to make sure I am not staying behind as a professional as it may also affect the children and the setting, where I am working. I want to do level 3 in child care, so it will help me to further develop my skills about child care, giving me the ability to better help children with their development and give my best to them as a professional and also to enhance my job opportunities. Once I am employed I intend to look into other courses as first aid, children’s safeguard, health and safety, aiming to improve and get confidence to deal with any unexpected situation. â€Å"Professional development is the process by which a person maintains the quality and relevance of professional services throughout his/her working life. It has been defined by the Institute for Continuing Professional Development as: ‘The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and the development of personal qualities necessary for the education of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner's working life. ‘ It follows that we have an ethical responsibility as professiona to continue our professional development throughout our careers. Professional development is not a product, devised by training providers and academic institutions. It is a mindset, a habit to acquire. Professional development requires self-directed, independent learning. It also demands an active rather than passive approach to learning. It differs from other forms of learning because it requires us to decide that needs to be learned or un-learned, how to learn it, and how to test and assess our learning. † (http://www. materials. ac. uk/guides/developing. asp) A* – Reflect on why it is important to review your communication and professional skills. In my opinion it is important to be a reflective practitioner to be able to offer a good care for children, keeping them safe, giving them suitable resources for their development on this way improving education. A good way to follow this route is to continuously review and evaluate my skills, improving my knowledge, reading, studying, and learning about new challenges and ways of helping children’s development. Reviewing the way I communicate is important to make sure I am giving the right message and listening to others clearly, because if I don’t communicate properly it may cause lots of distress. Consulting other professionals, sharing experience will help us all to improve the quality of the setting and the way children are learning and also help us to improve ourselves. It is important to review my actions, when good, how I made it good and what were the results; if bad, what did I do wrong, how can I improve, always aiming to further develop my skills to benefit children. I am aware of the aspects that I need to improve and I must keep studying to improve this aspects as English and maths and I will further develop this skills to be able to better help children. When setting targets and plans it is important to be realistic about my capacities and knowledge, otherwise I may end up not doing my work properly and getting frustrated, which can seriously affect my work, children and other professionals. Unit 2 Relate to D1/D2 and D3 *Equality and diversity †¢ All children have a need to develop, which is helped by exploring and discovering the people and things around them. †¢ Some children's development may be at risk, for example: o children who are disabled and those with special educational needs o those from socially excluded families, such as the homeless or those who live with a parent who is disabled or has a mental illness o Children from traveler communities, refugees or asylum seekers and those from diverse linguistic backgrounds. All children are entitled to enjoy a full life in conditions which will help them take part in society and develop as an individual, with their own cultural and spiritual beliefs. †¢ Practitioners ensure that their own knowledge about different cultural groups is up-to-date and consider their own attitudes to people who are different from themselves. †¢ All children have an equal right to be listened to and valued in the sett ing. Diversity is the difference between cultures, religion, and background. It is important to look at it in a positive way to help children to understand equality, to avoid discrimination and to allow every child’s development. It is very important that every setting provides a non stereotypical, anti-bias environment, with equipments, material, books, dressing up clothes, food, posters, all from different religions, culture, and color and positively promote diversity. Where, every child can see a bit of their selves, culture and feel welcomed and not discriminated. PIN No: 10/681015 Centre No: 383. 000 Unit 5 Communication and professional skills within child care and education D8 – References and Bibliography Bibliography: Child care and Education Tassoni Penny Heinamman, 2007 Harlow Website: http://www. nidos. org. uk/downloads/Confidentialitypolicy. pdf http://www. materials. ac. uk/guides/developing. asp [pic]