Blog #5 (Post Service)

The themes that I noticed across my experiences were those of communication competence and negotiation. For communication competence, I learned that a sense of adaptability is needed in different situations, such as with the example of affiliation and changing my choice of words around so the child could understand what I was saying better. Another aspect that is needed to be a competent communicator is that of the great amount of involvement and commitment towards the relationship, along with a great amount of patience when working with children. Empathy is also needed to understand the child’s point of view and viewing the world from their perspective. As for negotiation, I influenced the children’s perceptions through the process of communication, and vice versa in that the children influenced my perceptions. Negotiation contributed to how effectively a message was portrayed, and in turn, understood. The children and I need a bridge of understanding that is necessary for proper communication to occur.

This experience at the Lydia Home will shape my future interpersonal interactions by helping me assess all possible concepts that are needed to achieve communication competence in children. I have lots of little cousins and family members who I now know how to relate to more efficiently, after having this experience because now I know some of the reasons why they have different feelings than we as young adults do. Therefore, I will apply affiliation, patience, empathy, and negotiation to help the children who I work with in the future and those in my family to communicate their needs and wants in the most effective way possible. I really got a hands-on experience by working at the Lydia Home and it gave me insight to future strategies and approaches I could take when dealing with different behaviors of children and how they perceive the world through different eyes than most adults do.