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Community Interactions With Children

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A meaningful experience in my community placement was learning how to interact with children in various developmental stages. My limited experience working with infants and toddlers, made me apprehensive about being able to engage and communicate with the children in an age appropriate level and manner. The first few days at my placement, I did not feel capable of connecting with the children, rather only building rapport with their parents and caregivers. I had difficulty applying the theoretical development concepts to the real-life child population. Elaborate
Being a student nurse at an early year’s family centre was the first time I had exposure to a youth population between the ages of zero to six years old. Prior to this placement, …show more content…

It is important to acknowledge that various external factors influence the child’s interaction with new people, including the child’s developmental stage, current mood and temperament. It is unrealistic to expect to be embraced by every single child, particularly when they are very young. The rapport with the caregivers should be the main focus for the health care provider, however, acknowledging the child’s presence is very important. Children are susceptible to being ignored. When interacting with a child, especially for the first time, there are various communication techniques that have been proven to be effective in making them relaxed and comfortable. Utilizing techniques as infant directed talk, smiling while talking, and interacting with them alongside the caregiver are the most effective and beneficial during the interactions. I think my expectations of being able to engage every infant in some form of play was unrealistic. Instead of considering external factors as their level of development, temperament or mood, I thought it was my lack of skills that did not engage

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