Types of Communication » types of listening communication

Types of Listening Communication

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:15:59 +0000

Listening is an important aspect of communication, and the role is played by the receiver of the message. Communication is successfully completed with listening and understanding with the use of any of the types of listening communication. Understanding the different types of listening communication is important to be able to apply the right one in the right situation. Although listening is not communication in itself, it is still an integral part in communicating, thereby giving it more focus in the classification of the types of listening communication.

People are taught to read, to speak, and to write, but are not taught to listen, not to mention analyze the types of listening communication. In fact, 45% of all communication activities are made up of listening, which is a big enough to have room for the thorough discussion of the types of listening communication. This way, people can become better listeners and have a better understanding of the various types of listening communication, but also the utter need for it. Besides, the fact that any of the types of listening communication uncontrollably coming, may it be at home, the workplace, or any gathering, further stresses the need to become better listeners.

As mentioned earlier, the types of listening communication are used for certain scenarios. With the use of certain skills, the types of listening communication can be beneficial by rewarding the person with new information, better relationship, appreciation of things, and more. With that, the types of listening communication are informative listening, relationship listening, appreciative listening, evaluative listening, and discriminative listening.

One of the types of listening communication that seek to understand a message is informative listening. Listening to teachers in school, to reporters in television shows, to speakers of seminars, and to anyone in particular who might give you information all need informative listening. In addition, three variables come into play when engaging in this, which are vocabulary, concentration, and memory.

Moving on with the types of listening communication, there is a type which calls a person to build healthier relationships with others through deeper understanding of other people. This is known as relationship listening, which has further specific types. Although information is needed to understand, the stress is placed on the person rather than the information about the person alone. The behaviors involved in this type are attending, supporting, and empathizing.

The types of listening communication are not only about understanding things, because another type known as appreciative listening involves enjoyment, such as listening to your favorite music, watching movies or television programs, or simple hearing out nature’s sounds. It is affected by presentation, perception, and previous experiences.

Another one of the types of listening communication involves more attention than the others. This is critical listening, which plays an important role in shaping opinions and bringing about changes. The things that encompass critical listening and thinking are the credibility of the speaker, the logic of the arguments, and the psychological appeals.

The last of the types of listening communication is discriminative listening. This is perhaps the most important among the others since it is inherent to the rest of them. This is because it is usually used in conjunction with the other types of listening communication. Your hearing ability, awareness of structures in sound, and nonverbal cue integration must be considered when keeping up with this type.

Having a good command of the types of listening communication can tremendously improve the way you communicate and receive messages. The types of listening communication are used in daily living, so making a conscious effort in improving your own listening skills to make the most out of your ears.

Types of Listening Communication

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:07:59 +0000

The Benefits Of Energisers For Your Event

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:16:21 +0000

Energisers can have a dramatic impact on your audience, they can wake up, motivate and completely energise your conference or event, ensuring that your audience is listening to your message. With careful planning they can transform your event.

So how do you know which are the best energisers for your event and for your group? There are a number of factors that will help to steer you in the right direction. Firstly take a look at your numbers, how many people are going to take part and think about how this can affect the logistics of any energiser you have consider.

Will you need a large room for the energisers? If so are you certain your conference room is suitable? If you are not sure, ask the team building company for their advice. What style of meeting room set up have you got? If it’s theatre style, don’t consider an energiseing activity which involves delegates sitting at a table.

What do you want to achieve from hosting one? Do you want to ensure that they are awake? If that’s your main objective then plan carefully the timing, perhaps after lunch may be the optimum time for it. If it’s to grab delegates attention and to get them communicating with each other, then you need to look at hosting it early on at your conference or event.

Think carefully about your conference objectives, any themes or keywords that you are communicating to your delegates and see if you can tie them into your energiser. There are many different types of energisers that can illustrate communication, back to basics or working with limited resources. Talk to your team building company, they will be able to advise you on which would best illustrate your company message.

If you have space in your conference itinerary for more than one energiser, then the optimum is three energisers. The first one would be at the start of your conference, wake them up and break the ice. Second session would be after lunch where delegates are more inclined to sit back and fall asleep and the third session is at the end of your conference so you can really energise and leave each and every delegate on a real high, ensuring that your conference message is heard and remembered.

One key element that many conference organisers forget is that you use a conference energiser to energise your delegates, to wake them up and to motivate them. Your delegates will be eager to listen and on a high, it’s now crucial that the next activity or speaker is engaging, the person presenting has to be charismatic and enthusiastic because this is when you could lose your audience.

Some organisers make the mistake of not placing enough importance on energisers but by carefully choosing effective activities could be the difference between hosting a typical conference and hosting a motivating memorable effective conference.

Shaun Parker
http://www.articlesbase.com/presentation-articles/the-benefits-of-energisers-for-your-event-304268.html

Music For Healing, Relaxation, and Wellness

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:25:19 +0000

From a powerful national anthem to church hymns and classical masterpieces, music has always been able to evoke emotion, affect your mood, and influence the brain and body. Scientific studies throughout the years have proven how beneficial music can be both emotionally and physically. However certain types of music are better suited for healing than others. For example, you may find that while you truly enjoy rock music, this music may not be the most ideal music for your own emotional or physical needs.

Generally speaking, you want to search for music which is soft, soothing, and geared toward relaxation or meditation. Many classical music recordings have these qualities as do New Age compositions. You can even acquire music which is specially geared toward meditation, yoga, and other wellness programs. I highly recommend the music of Daniel Kobialka for all of your wellness and meditation needs. Mr. Kobialka’s focus is the rejuvenative power of music. He has led didactic and interactive workshops and seminars, traveled the world bringing his violin virtuosity to hospitals from Beijing, China to Plainville Ohio, and recorded music for meditation and guidance with alternative healing pioneers including Joan Boreysenko and Bernie Siegel. “If you are seeking healing, inspiration or spiritual fulfillment, you will discover in Kobialka the transformative power of music,” Larry Dossey, M.D.

Music has always been loved and embraced by the public, from catchy jingles that influence their purchases to cherished childhood songs that bring back a nostalgia for friendlier times. As such, it is no surprise that science, as well as medicine, have turned their attention to the therapeutic powers of music.

“Music, the undefined sounds of universal language,” says Daniel Kobialka, “has the remarkable ability of speaking to each of us in a very personal and profound manner.”

The many uses of music in therapeutic situations vary largely and may include, but are not limited to, motor skills, social/interpersonal development, cognitive development, self-awareness, and spiritual enhancement.

The idea of music as a tool for healing dates back to the beginnings of history, and some of the earliest notable mentions in Western history are found in the writings of ancient Greek philosophers.

Robert Burton wrote in the 16th century in his classic work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia (depression).

Using music and sound for healing is not yet a mainstream practice, however many groups have already begun to implement music therapy to their advantage. For example, some schools have initiated programs including music to benefit their student’s learning abilities. They have begun to hire therapists or other specialists who use music to strengthen nonmusical areas such as communication, physical coordination, teamwork, or even math.

If this article still hasn’t convinced you of the value of music for healing, consider the case of Dr. Michael J. Crawford and his colleagues, who in November 2006, again found that music therapy helped the outcomes of Schizophrenic patients.

His study showed conclusive evidence of the value of music in healing therapies. His November 2006 study included a total of 115 patients. Of these 115 patients, 81 of these were were subjected to various music therapies. Multiple methods of analysis demonstrated a trend towards improved symptom scores among those which were subjected to healing music therapy, especially in the area of reducing symptoms of schizophrenia. They further concluded that the effects as well as cost-effectiveness of music therapy for acute psychosis should be further investigated in further trials.

As you can see, there is a strong case for the value of music in everyday wellness as well as for your health and even to assist in the care of specific ailments. You can use music as a wellness method in your own home in a variety of ways, such as setting aside 15 minutes when you wake up in the morning and before bed at night to listen to relaxing music and calm your mind. You may also wish to listen to healing music on an mp3 player or CD player while you work during the day, if it is possible in your workplace to do so, or if you work from home. You can also play soothing, healing music for your pets or to even calm down and relax a baby!

Music can be used in such a large variety of ways for healing both our bodies and minds that you simply can’t go wrong by listening to this type of music! Even if your normal playlist includes rock, country, or even rap, you too can appreciate the benefits given by listening to relaxation music. There are such a large variety of styles, instruments, and cultural influences available in healing music that you can usually find something to suit everyone. So give music healing a try and start feeling the benefits today!

Stephanie Davies
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/music-for-healing-relaxation-and-wellness-93639.html

Public Speaking: The Nature of Listening

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:16:49 +0000

http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/3775-public-speaking-the-nature-of-listening

This lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Public Speaking. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/publicspeaking. The full course covers getting started, preparing a speech, presenting the speech, audience considerations, types of speeches, small group communication, and more. The course features three renowned professors: Jess K. Alberts of Arizona State University, Brenda J, Allen of the University of Colorado at Denver, and Dan West of Ohio State University.

Jess K. Alberts is a professor of communication at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University, where she was Director from 1995 until 2004. She currently serves as Director of the Conflict Transformation Project and is an associate with Project for Wellness and Work-life. Her research appears regularly in academic journals, and she recently co-authored Human Communication in Society. Undergraduates at Arizona State honored her classroom teaching skills with a “Last Lecture Award,” and she has twice been a finalist for Professor of the Year at ASU. A nationally known speaker on interpersonal communication, Prof. Alberts has given numerous presentations across the country on humor, conflict, and developing and maintaining a passionate life.

Brenda J. Allen is departmental chair and a professor of communication at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, where she teaches organizational communication. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on organizational communication and diversity and she serves on the editorial boards of several communication journals. In 2004, she authored the book Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity. While at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, she has been recognized with the First Annual Award for Outstanding Achievement for Commitment to Diversity and she received the Francine Meritt Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Lives of Women in Communication from the Womens Caucus of the National Communication Association. Prof. Allen is frequently invited to speak at community and professional events.

Dan West is the John A. Cassese Director of Forensics at Ohio University. Previously, he was a distinguished lecturer at Rice University, where he also acted as Director of Forensics. Under his direction, the team consistently placed in the top ten at national debate tournaments. While at Rice, Prof. West won the Outstanding Faculty Associate for Brown College (1999) and the award for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities and Social Sciences (four times). He is well known for using his engaging speaking style in a variety of settings; his annual presentation of the Rice University Alcohol Policy to the freshman class was always a hit.

Duration : 0:3:6

[youtube _mD9tzshH8M]

Basics of Parenting

admin — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:45:45 +0000

Basics Of Parenting

Today, the one and the only question that is in the minds of everybody is “where are the youth of this generation going?” as the lifestyle and values of the youth is bothering the society to say the least. Though the problems created by the youth and the problems faced by them are innumerable, it is not the state of affairs of the youth alone that is causing anxiety. The baby on its way into this world, new born babies and the children in different stages of growth also face and cause problems. While trying to find the root cause of the problem it is the parents who are blamed for it, most of the time. Though they are not the sole cause, they have a major role to play. Their success in parenting depends on the kind of parents they are, their environment, the support from the family, the possibility of getting trained for parent hood, the level of education, the nature of the child concerned etc.,. The problems, mostly psychological, would vanish with proper parenting. In the early days, people mostly lived in joint families. The experience and advice the young parents received from the elders, parents, aunts, grand parents, uncles, guided them in the process of parenting. The children also had many people to support them, to allow them to vent their feelings and to learn the probable ways of findings solutions to their problems.

True Story

While talking to a group of adolescent girls shocking messages came to light. Many of the adolescent girls were having illicit relationship with auto drivers with whom they were coming to school. Deeper analysis brought out the fact that these girls were longing for love from their parents. When an iota of love or something akin to it is shown by the auto driver, they easily fall a prey to the former’s devious designs; of course they suffer later when they find it difficult to extricate themselves from the driver’s clutches. Only the parents can help these children. One of the great, noble traits of parenthood is love and that alone can cure many ills faced by the children and youth. It can help the girls to retrieve themselves1.

In yet another instance, a 5 years old orphan boy in a care centre for the AIDS infected persons stunned the onlookers by saying that if his father had had proper parenting, he would not have gone astray and ended with AIDS, infecting his mother too2. Even this small lad knows the importance of parenthood. Everyone knows about parenting and follow the kind of parenting demonstrated by their parents or that which they have learnt through courses or training or advice given by psychologists or gurus.

Styles of Parenting:

Just as there are different types of human beings, there are different types of styles of parents. The parents’ style influences the level and kind of development of the child. Whatever may be the style of parenting the essentials to be looked into are, “Express your love, make your child feel secure. Build their self-esteem. Stay flexible and recognize the time for change as your child grows. Communicate openly and honestly and be confident in your own ability”3. When you talk to your child, you should be actually listening not just hearing.

There are different types of parenting, such as “Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive4”. Parents who are very clear about their role and give instructions with confidence can be considered as Authoritative. The Reader’s Digest Great Dictionary of the English language shows that authoritative means commanding and self confident, while authoritarian implies, favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority5. It is similar to dictatorship.

Another variety of parenting is known as permissive. These parents allow their children to follow their own path, mostly non-interfering. It is similar to saying, “let the sleeping dogs lie” as they are. These parents do not want to follow any strict rules or take up much responsibility in bringing up their children. There is another mode of classifying the parents. According to this classification, there are three types of parents, such as Consultant, Helicopter, Dull Sergeants6.

Three Types of Parents

CONSULTANT

HELICOPTER

DRILL SERGEANT

This Love and Logic parent provides guidance and consultant services for children

This parent hovers over children and rescues them from the hostile world in which they live.

This parent commands and directs the lives of children.

The Love and Logic parent provides messages of personal worth and strength

provides messages of weakness and low personal worth

provides messages of low personal worth and resistance

The Love and Logic parent very seldom mentions responsibilities

makes excuses for the child, but complains about mishandled responsibilities

makes lots of demands and has lots of expectations about responsibility.

The Love and Logic parent demonstrates how to take care of self and be responsible

“takes on” the responsibility of the child

tells the child how he /she should handle responsibility

The Love and Logic parent shares personal feelings about own performance and responsibilities

protects the child from any possible negative feelings

tells the child how he / she should feel

The Love and Logic parent provides and helps child explore alternatives and then allows child to make his / her own decision

makes decisions for the child

provides absolutes : “This is the decision you should make”.

The Love and Logic parent provides “time frames” in which child may complete responsibilities

provides no structure, but complaints, “After all I’ve done for you…”

demands that jobs or responsibilities be done now

The Love and Logic parent models doing a good job, finishing, cleaning up, feeling good about it.

whines and uses guilt : “When are you ever going to learn. I always have to clean up after you.”

issues orders and threats: “You get that room cleaned up or else…”

The Love and Logic parent often asks self, “Who owns the problem?” helps the child explore solutions to his / her problem

whines and complains about having an irresponsible child who causes “me” much work and responsibility

takes over ownership of the problem using threats and orders to solve the problem

The Love and Logic parent uses lots of actions, but very few words

uses lots of words and actions that rescue or indicate that the child is not capable or responsible

uses lots of harsh words, very few actions

10.

The Love and Logic parent allows child to experience life’s natural consequences and allows them to serve as the teacher

10.

protects child from natural consequences, uses guilt as the teacher

10.

uses punishment; pain and humiliation can serve as the teacher.

Source: http://www.loveandlogic.com/pdfs/threetypes.pdf

One way to identify the kind of parents is by analyzing the kind of gifts they give to their children in order to make them do any specific activity. Some parents have a survival mentality; they give their child “whatever” just to make them do the job. Some parents operate with a default mentality. They give their child what is popular without considering whether it will be the most helpful. In actual practice the parent should be operating deliberately and purposefully, giving the child what is useful after carefully thinking through. They are usually known as “intentional parents” 7. Depending on what kind or type of parents they are, the goals, and gifts also change. In the case of permissive parents, the guiding motive will be, “If I can just make it through the child – rearing years, I can get my life back”. Their goal will be “jilting the kids out of the house”. They follow the easiest method of doing whatever is easy to do. Hence, they use bribes, threats and use TV as a baby sitter8.

On the other hand, those “who want to give the child what will be best and most helpful for him”, will have the goal of preparing the child for life as a productive adult. They would spend quality time with the child, imparting ethical values to the child. The gifts given by such parents would be, “religious books, enjoyable pastimes, academics, home skills and chances for socialization” 9.

If a child is to be successful in life, the appropriate parental care is necessary. But, of course, there are children who grow up into successful adults, in spite of defective parenting. But such cases are very rare. The society at present is facing problems of parenting especially in the case of single parent, divorced parents, simple and extended families. Most of the children brought up by single parent and unmarried mothers, find it difficult to cope with the pressures in the family and society.

Parenting Skills:

With, hectic work schedule of the parents, the heavy load of learning coupled with many distractions and the problems faced by the society, the children are looking for the support of their parents for a secure life. It is ordinarily observed that parenting without proper foundation has always and indefinitely led to confusions in child development. What is essential is

Ø Developing and clarifying clear communicative expectations.

Ø Staying calm in the midst of turmoil

Ø Encouraging positive consequences and consistency.

Ø Being the role model to your child.

Ø Effective praising.10

To be a successful parent discipline is necessary. At the same time, there should be consistency in whatever the parents are saying and doing, parents should have a preplanned, pre-developed strategy to teach proper behaviour to the child. That is, both the parents,or the single parent should make their expectations clear to the child. , Both of them can sail smoothly while bringing up their child. They should be very specific and firm in teaching their children. Moreover, the parents must take into consideration the child’s age, ability, developmental status and the resources that are available for the family.11 Once the expectations are clearly stated, it is necessary that both the parents should communicate it to the child, without contradictions. In addition to these, there should be frequent family ‘get togethers’. Instead of punishing the child for not abiding by the expectations, it will be better to have discussions to clear the child’s doubts and parents being role models.

Ray Burke states that “Children can be sarcastic, defiant, rebellious and possibly violent, parents have to prepare themselves for times like these and learn to keep cool” 12. Yet another way to increase or encourage desirable behavior is to use positive consequences. What the parents should remember is to use the positive consequences that would work with the child. While developing a child’s behavior the parents should remember “consistency”. Consistency is the key to being a successful parent. This gives the message to the child that “your parents are reliable and serious”.

The most important aspect of successful parents is that the parents should be role model for their child 13. The parent should be a positive role model for their child to follow. As Ray Burke say, “Praise is powerful…. Praise is nourishment. It helps in the emotional development. It helps in building up self-esteem, belief of personal satisfaction, feeling of security.”14 The praise should be communicated to the child either verbally or through action.

Parenting Skills :

Ø Discipline

Ø Education

Ø Finance

With the social changes, the extended family that existed earlier, which played the vital role of a model, a shock absorber, a vent for relieving one’s feelings has become a thing of the past. Hence, the parents of the modern era have to learn creative ways of bringing up their children. It is found that the most important but controversial parenting skills is DISCIPLINE. Whether the method is, redirection, time-outs, loss of privileges, grounding, extra chores, or sparking, the parents should embrace their role to train their children to become moral and respectable adults15. The second skill to be acquired by the parents is regarding education. The parents should also be educating their children in moral values. The child’s education should take into consideration certain important facts16:

v Family’s financial status.

v Quality of local public and private schools.

v Level of parental education.

v Personalities of parents and children.

v Home schooling support and resources.

v The involvement of the parents in the child’s education.

Besides education, one of the important parenting skills is the effective way of dealing with financial issues. The demand for expenditure for rearing the child, medical, hygienic needs etc. are soaring high today. Hence, a successful parent should know what is essential and what is not before deciding upon the expenditure of the limited resources.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that children bring us much joy and much responsibility. Most of the stress and worry of bringing them up can be reduced or removed with proper, careful planning. The parents should plan when to have a child. The working mother, if she is to stay at home, once the child is born, should plan earlier to save as much as possible and cut down the family expenditure. Both the parents have to plan to set aside enough time to be with the child, not only when it is a baby, but till the child becomes an adult.

The parents, need not be only the problematic, should avail of training in parenting skill as much as possible. First of all, both parents should have a congenial and frank communication between them. Only then, once the child comes into the family, they will be able to communicate with the child easily. Further the “ego”, the concept of “I” should be relegated to the background. It is possible that the child becomes sick at times mildly, at times seriously. Both the parents should take responsibility of looking after the child, not blaming each other as the cause of sickness. The child rearing, though filled with difficulties, hurdles and events that test one’s tolerance, is undoubtedly a pleasure. It is a joy. A successful parent should know how to smile. That will reduce the stress and pain of the child. As it grows into adolescent stage, the skills of the parents should be developed further. They should know more about the physique, the psychology and mental development of the child.

It should be remembered that the requisites of an effective parent are dedication, attention, love and constant denial of easily administering swift punishment. Though parenting is time consuming, the fruits are very attractive. The future generation and its success depends on the effective, successful and cheerful parents of today to a great extent.

END NOTES

1. Author’s personal experience

2. Ibid.

3. http://www.raisingkids.co.uk 10.14.2008

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/614981/authoritative_authoritarian_and_permissive.html

The Great Dictionary of English Language (Readers Digest Association Limited, London, 2003) p.56, 57

Three Types of Parents: Love and Logic institute – www.loveandlogic.com 1981.

http://intentionalparents.com/types-of-parents/ p.1

Ibid. p.2.

Ibid.p.2

http://allp

Shyamala Karunakarapandian
http://www.articlesbase.com/publishing-articles/basics-of-parenting-745594.html

What is Speech and Language Therapy?

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:55:55 +0000

A Speech and Language Therapist (SALT) is qualified to work with children, young people and adults who have some form of communication disorder. It is often thought that a Speech and Language Therapist is only able to help with actual speech production problems, but in fact the range of services is much wider.

What does a Speech and Language Therapist do?

A therapist working with children and young people will initially assess both comprehension (understanding of language) and expressive language (how language is used).

Comprehension

The Therapist will look at various areas where difficulties might occur including:

    * Vocabulary – types of words such as nouns (naming words), verbs (actions) and prepositions (in, on, under etc.)
    * Understanding language structures such as following instructions – eg. “brush dolly’s hair”, “give me the yellow pencil”

Expressive Language

Spoken language may be assessed for the following:

    * Speech sounds – often termed phonology.   The child or young person may not have certain speech sounds in their vocabulary, or may use them inappropriately eg. “dog” becomes “dod” (termed fronting) or “glove” becomes “glub” (termed stopping)
    * Articulation difficulties – the production of speech sounds may be difficult, possibly due to a physical problem such as cleft lip/palate or poor dentition or even a co-orindation problem – Dyspraxia
    * Fluency – is there any evidence of dysfluency (stammering) or general hesitancy in speech

What can be done if the child/young person has little or no speech?

Language is not only the spoken word but can include communicating by various alternative methods. Some of the more common ways are:

    * Symbol systems – a simple line drawing is used to represent an object or concept eg. Makaton, Rebus, Mayer Johnson
    * Pictures/photo systems – actual pictures or photos are used to indicate objects, activities etc.
    * Signing systems – include British Sign Language (BSL) and Makaton.   These systems use manual signs to convey meaning
    * Eye pointing – by using a special board with symbols or pictures, it is possible for a parent or carer to interpret what the child/young person wants to communicate by following their eye gaze until it stops at the item they want.   This can be useful for children or young people who have physical difficulties and no speech.
    * Communication aids – these can range from simple picture boards to complex computers with voice synthesizers

What other aspects of communication are assessed?

Other areas which Speech and Language Therapists might look at and which underpin communication are:

Listening and attention skills/concentration – can the child or young person attend to a task? Not to be confused with a hearing impairment – the child or young person may hear what is said but cannot concentrate sufficiently to process the information

Play and imagination – can the child play alone, alongside others (parallel play) or take part in group play? Is imaginative play present ? eg. putting doll to bed, pretend tea parties

Social communication – can the child or young person interact with others? Do they understand the rules of conversation, such as turn taking, repairing conversations, keeping on topic and appropriate greetings?

Functional use of language – can the child/young person use whatever system of communication is appropriate to them to make choices, comment on events, question or refuse?

Behaviour – an inability to communicate can be very frustrating for the child/young person and may result in agitated or challenging behaviour patterns.

How does the Speech and Language Therapist carry out the assessment?

The Speech and Language Therapist will look at all areas in which the child/young person is experiencing difficulty.

* This may include observation or direct working with them in various settings, such as the home, school or college.
* Liaison with people who come into frequent contact with the child/young person is also very important. As well as parents, teachers, carers, other health professionals etc. may be consulted.

What happens after assessment?

After a thorough assessment, therapy options are discussed which could include one or more of the following options:

          o Direct therapy - the therapist working with the child/young person on a 1:1 basis
          o Indirect therapy – a programme of work is carried out by a named person eg parent, carer, teaching assistant under the guidance of a Speech and Language Therapist who monitors progress and reviews the programme as necessary
          o Changes to communicative environment eg. ensuring an appropriate symbols system is used in the home/classroom etc.,   advising on effective communication and training staff how to use alternative methods of communication

Is the Speech and Language Therapist qualified?

All Speech and Language Therapists will have undertaken a three or four year degree course at university. Some therapists may have completed a post graduate course after following a previous degree. Candidates require three A levels to enter the course, although mature students may be accepted with equivalent qualifications.

The courses are intensive and consist of both theoretical work and clinical placements and all students experience working with a wide range of communication disorders.

All practising therapists must be registered with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and the Health Professions Council (HPC). Therapists working in the Independent Sector may also be registered with the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice (ASLTIP).

Jeff
http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/what-is-speech-and-language-therapy-620637.html

Landmark Education TMLP Your Vision The World is Listening

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:06:30 +0000

While many political protest groups take the approach and use the language of winning and losing, a zero sum game, the oppressors and the oppressed, Stephanie Phibbs created a group, The World is Listening, to simply hear people. Created in the Landmark Education TMLP program.

Duration : 1 min 21 sec

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Television Killed Advertising!

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:13:20 +0000

Ask any advertising person that you know if they have heard of, or read, The Cluetrain Manifesto and most of them will shake their heads with an emphatic no, which is a shame because within this book lies the clue to their demise.

Whilst the book is written with the Web in mind, most of what it has to say is true of the communication process itself.

So allow us to revisit the Cluetrain Manifesto and apply what they have to say about the world we live in now and the advertising and marketing world as we know it, setting aside the Web for the moment.

In the 20th century, the rise of mass communications media enhanced industry’s ability to address even larger markets with no loss of shoe leather and mass marketing truly came into its own.

With larger markets came higher rewards and these higher rewards had to be protected. More bureaucracy, more hierarchy and more command and control meant the customer who looked you in the eye, was promptly escorted out of the building by security.

The product of mass marketing was the message, delivered in as many forms as there were media and in as many guises as there were marketers to invent them.

Delivered locally, shipped globally, repeated inescapably, the business of marketing devoted itself to delivering the message. Unfortunately, what all these gurus of marketing did not realise and still do not today is that the customer never fully took delivery!

Why, because there is no demand for these advertising messages. Lets face it, consumers don’t want to hear from business.

The message that gets broadcast to you, me and the rest of the population has nothing to do with me in particular. Consequently, it’s worse than noise.

It’s an interruption in my life and like most people, I would rather do without it thank you very much. Just leave me to watch/listen to my program without any facile interruptions.

And that is the awful truth about marketing and advertising. It broadcasts messages to people who simply don’t want to listen or see it. Every advertisement, press release, publicity stunt and give-away designed by the Marketing Department, or Advertising Agency is coloured by the fact that all their hard work and planning is being presented to a public that doesn’t ask to hear or see it.

Recently the Sunday Times, in the UK, had this to say about advertising: “Things have changed a lot since you used to get 20 million people gathered around television sets to watch Coronation Street and one advertisement could reach them all.

Marketing budgets are being spent differently, and this means less money is being allotted for advertising. A couple of million pounds can buy you a few hours on television but marketers are realising that it can buy an awful lot more if it is spent elsewhere.”

Advertising agencies may be flatfooted in responding to the change, Advertisers cannot find what they need from the big agencies, which tend to be biased towards television advertising. Small agencies are more flexible and open minded to these changes but the likes of WPP can be a bit slow to respond.

Nestle, once one of the country’s biggest advertisers has slashed the amount it spends on television advertising.

Andrew Harrison, its Marketing Director, says “This is a start of a trend towards more rounded communications. And the big agencies like WPP need to look at offering more than just the traditional services….”

Despite all this rhetoric there is no evidence yet that advertising agencies, or the marketing departments of Clients understand the meaning of the word “communications.”

And herein lies the real problem, the complete lack of understanding of

what the communication process is all about.

Sending a message by itself isn’t sufficient to create an act of communication; there needs to be a response to a message as well. To illustrate this point, think of a radio station broadcasting late at night without a single listener tuned in.

You don’t have to argue about trees falling in an empty forest to agree that no communication has occurred here. In the same way, when you have a speaker talking to one or more people who aren’t listening, there is no communication taking place.

For communication to take place, you must have a message sender and a message receiver and the two sides must talk to each other to understand what the other is thinking/doing.

Advertising occurs when a group becomes too large for all members to contribute. One aspect of advertising is an unequal amount of “speaking”. Advertisers deliver their information to the mass audience, with limited opportunities, if any, for feedback.

The audience, therefore, is unable to talk back in a two-way conversation the way they might in a small group setting and as a result, do not feel involved, do not feel that the message has relevance to them as an individual.

Advertising views communication as something one person “does” to others. In this linear communication model, communication is like giving an injection: a sender encodes ideas and feeling into some sort of message and then injects them by means of a channel (TV, Newspapers, radio, etc).

Despite its simplicity, the linear view of communication isn’t completely accurate. For one thing it makes the questionable assumption that all communication involves encoding.

A more obvious problem of the linear model is its suggestion that communication flows in one direction, from sender to receiver.

However, most Types Of Communication, especially the interpersonal variety, are two-way exchanges. To put it differently, advertising’s linear view ignores the fact that receivers react to messages by sending messages of their own. And if the message sender is not listening in turn…?

Lack of communication competence.

Most advertising agencies and clients lack the skills of communication, advertising messages are more carefully prepared than interpersonal communication and yet “message understandability” tends to be lower.

Advertisements are more carefully prepared because gatekeepers (those who prepare and send out messages) are more cautious about what they say to large audiences than they are to audiences of one or just a few people. They check their facts more carefully and they prepare their syntax and vocabulary more precisely.

And yet, because their audience contributes much less feedback, the source cannot correct any lapse in interest or understanding, so people are more likely to misinterpret what they hear or read over the mass media.

It is important to note, of course, that just because mediated messages are more carefully prepared, they are not necessarily more accurate. Gatekeepers have a way of looking at the world based on personal beliefs or motivations. This “world view” sometimes tends to make media messages inaccurate.

Advertising ignores communications theory.

As the mass media have matured, the behavioural dynamics of perception and interaction, which are not addressed by advertising agencies, have become critical to the re-definition of media and its role in marketing communications. With passive, one way, forms of advertising such as media display or television advertising, there is a certainty of a degree of non-responsiveness.

However, with interactive marketing communication techniques, there is a commitment to participate, which, in turn leads to a set of possibilities, which are significantly different in how they affect the communication process itself.

All advertising is a form of learning, with the advertiser asking potential customers to change their behaviour once they have understood the benefits of the product or service on offer.

The anticipation of response generated through interactive marketing communication, means that the recipients will approach the data with a commitment to read and learn it.

In other words interactive marketing communication turns passive advertising into active advertising and actually alters behaviour during the learning process . It also cuts through the psychological barriers, which prevent an individual from changing brands.

People tend to filter out information they do not want to hear and this alters the effectiveness of advertising in quite a dramatic way. The purchaser’s decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety.

The worry that perhaps the purchase decision was not the best or right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce their choice and begins to take more notice of their chosen product’s advertising.

And, at the same time, the purchaser deliberately suppresses data, which might challenge their personal decision, by ignoring the advertising of competitive brands.

People are often loyal to a brand simply because they do not want to

readdress a decision that they have already made. The opportunity to screen out such undesired data always exists when media advertisements have to stand on their own and fight for attention.

Despite all this, lets repeat what we suggested at the beginning of this chapter, there is still no evidence yet that advertising agencies, or the marketing departments of Clients really understand the meaning of the word “communications.” They are making progress in some areas but there is clearly a whole lot more to be done.

Paul Ashby
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/television-killed-advertising-109879.html

Eavesdropping on bacterial conversations

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:37:20 +0000

Listening in on bacterial conversations could be the solution for improving chronic wound care, says a team of researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology.
Bacteria, often viewed as simplistic creatures, are in fact very sociable units of life, said Alex Rickard, assistant professor of biological sciences. They can physically and chemically interact with one another and are quite selective about who they hang out with. How bacteria might communicate in chronic wounds, however, was somewhat of a mystery.
Working with researchers and physicians at the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University and the South West Regional Wound Care Center in Lubbock, Texas, Rickard and a team of undergraduate researchers were able to identify specific types of chronic wound bacteria and to test their ability to produce cell-cell signaling molecules.
Partial gene sequencing allowed the team to identify 46 chronic wound strains belonging to nine genera. Further research inferred that close to 70 percent of those chronic wound strains produce a specific type of communication molecule autoinducer-2 (AI-2). A smaller percentage around 20 percent produce a different type of communication molecules that are called acyl-homoserine-lactones (AHLs). Scientists already know that structurally different bacterial cell-cell signaling molecules are able to mediate cell-cell communication, including A1-2 and AHLs.
Based on our findings, we think that most resident species the good bacteria that live on us and dont cause disease produce AI-2 while the pathogenic species typically produce AHLs, said Katelynn Manton, who was part of the undergraduate team and is now pursuing her doctorate. And it didnt seem to matter what kind of chronic wound we looked at diabetic ulcers, vascular ulcers or environmentally induced chronic wounds. They all indicated a presence of possible AHLs or AI-2s.
For Randy Wolcott, director of the Southwest Regional Wound Care Center, a clearer understanding of how these bacteria function is particularly important. AI-2s may be the best explanation why our commensal Coagulase Negative Staphylococci and other synergistically helpful bacteria are immensely beneficial to us when they reside in a normal skin environment, he said. However, when they turn or are coerced to a dark side in a wound or infected medical device, they can cause so much devastation and death.
According to Rickard and his team, the typically pathogenic bacteria communicate in one language, the good bacteria in another. The big question now is whether any of them are bilingual and can listen in on one anothers conversations. Being able to interpret or perhaps even guide these cell-cell signals may be important factors in how wound development could be influenced.
Can we steer pathogenic bacteria away from what is, in essence, a mob mentality and prevent them from communicating, said Rickard. Or can we tell the mob to do one thing when they should in fact be doing something completely different?
Manipulation of cell-cell signaling has the potential to be an effective strategy for wound healing, particularly in influencing bad bacteria which are particularly resistant to antimicrobials. Typical chronic wound bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa tend to have an entire repertoire of aggressive tactics that allow them to maintain a strong presence in chronic wounds. As a result, they are able to multiply rapidly, driving out the resident species and hampering wound healing.
When bacteria form biofilms, as they do in chronic wounds, they become protected from killing by antimicrobial agents, said Phil Stewart, director of the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University. Topical antiseptics, systemic antibiotics, and the bodys own defenses are unable to clear these infections. We need alternative strategies such as jamming bacterial communication to help weaken the biofilm defenses. Listening in on the bacterial signals may also provide a way to diagnose the state of a chronic wound.
Funded by two grants from the National Institutes of Health, Rickard is hoping to expand the study.
I have been very fortunate to have access to a terrific range of top-notch undergraduate researchers here at Binghamton University, said Rickard. And I will be tapping in to this resource yet again when we tackle the next phase of this project. Our goal is to include a wider range of wound types and compare the types of signals present. By doing this, we expect to be able to develop novel methods to monitor wound healing and ultimately prevent the establishment of chronic wounds.

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