The Importance Of Interpersonal Communication

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

By observing us children learn how to interact with others, accomplish goals, and get along in the world. We are the examples, and what many do not realize is that our non-verbal messages and actions are stronger than our verbal ones. Non-verbal communication consists of expressions, tone of voice, eye contact, and actions.  The way you listen, look, move, and react tells the other person whether or not you care, if you’re being truthful, and how well you’re listening. When your nonverbal signals match up with the words you’re saying, they increase trust, clarity, and rapport. When they don’t, they generate tension, mistrust, and confusion. There are many different types of nonverbal communication. Together, the following nonverbal signals and cues communicate your interest and investment in others.

Nonverbal messages are an essential component of communication in the teaching process. It is not only what you say to your student that is important but also how you say it. An awareness of nonverbal behaviour will allow you to become a better receiver of students’ messages and a better sender of signals that reinforce learning.

Facial Expression: The facial expression such as happiness, sadness, anger and fear helps a lot in conveying a message. These facial expressions are similar all over the world but non- verbal communication and behaviour varies hugely between the cultures in the world.Since the look on a person’s face is noticed , before we hear ,facial expression contributes a lot in a successfully non-verbal communication .

I am originally from Puerto Rico, which is a country in which communication is an integral part of society. The cultural norm of the Puerto Rican culture is to speak up when necessary and communicate clearly if we want things to be done. At the same time, I believe that in order to produce results, the manner in which communicating takes place, is an extremely important component. My culture also showed me how the emotions used when communicating, such as the use of the hands and body language, will dictate the tone and flow of the communication. The literature suggests that the majority (as much as 76%) of the message we gibe to another person during conversations is carried by non-verbal or para-verbal communication. Thus, we must be very careful and strategic in our use o non-verbal communication (Van Acker, 1997).

Interpersonal interaction is how people relate towards each other in a verbal interaction or non-verbal interaction. Verbal interactions include speech, tone of somebody’s voice, listening and language. Non-verbal interactions include a person’s body language and the way they express it for example their posture, facial expression and their proximity. Interpersonal communication can take place in a health and social care setting, for example: at a care home, there is a new career and she does not speak English properly, so therefore it is hard for her to interact with the residents, which makes this is a language barrier.

There are eight key forms of nonverbal communications used on a daily basis. These forms can affect the way people view another person; however, without understanding the forms of nonverbal communication there is certain to be a lot of misinterpretations. Cultural and language differences are a common reason for miscommunication. When communicating with people in different cultures, a person should be extremely aware of the hand gestures and nonverbal communication tools they are using. Many of the hand gestures used in the United States that mean good things, mean offensive and profane things to other cultures. Nonverbal communication is described as body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions. It is known that people reveal more information through nonverbal communication, than words alone to get a point across. There will always be some interaction between two or more people that everyone’s

Problems may arise when messages at the content level conflict with nonverbal messages at another level. An example of this can be “I love you” and “I despise you”. A child that is continually exposed to a mixed style of communication like this may feel helpless and can respond by withdrawing.

That is why body language and facial expressions can be very important when it comes to demonstrative communication. An example of body language that can be misunderstood would be when two people are talking and one person has their arms folded across their chest. This can be perceived as the person not listening or being considered overprotective of themselves and will not take criticism lightly. The person with the folded arms could just be cold or it is a learned gesture from their parents and that is how they listen. This is why many people would agree that demonstrative communication should not only have the nonverbal but also the verbal to go along with it so that people do not have any misunderstandings and the issue can be handled properly. According to Sutton, a person cannot fully deliver the anecdote of the day to anyone lacking words, except if the person can mime the entire tale (Sutton, 2011). Even if the person is able to mime they cannot express the entire issue perfectly. There has to be some degree of distance. This type of communication cannot always be expressed perfectly. An example of this would be that a person cannot convey the nonverbal communication over the phone and the person on the other end only has the verbal part of the communication and might take something the wrong way because they are not able to see the nonverbal part of the communication and that is where misunderstandings come in.

It is difficult enough to interpret words accurately, in fact, there are no doubt more misinterpreted messages than not (Cherney and Tynan, 1990). When the element of nonverbal is incorporated, the rate of misinterpretations increases dramatically (Elgin, 1980).

Have you ever had a time when a partner, friend, or family member stated something with language verbally yet said the exact opposite with nonverbal communication? In my family, it happens every day whether we realize it or not. Below is an example of a time when my dad was using nonverbal communication to convey messages that weren’t really intended.

In every society nonverbal communication is one of the most powerful tools that a person can use to interpret the message that is being delivered. Even though verbal communication is fairly straightforward, nonverbal communication allows others to sense the true emotions of the person that is expressing them. For example even though a person may say that they are not irritated, their usage of voice may display otherwise. Nonverbal communication not only reveals hidden messages, but it also complements, substitutes, and exaggerates verbal communication.

There are many unspoken rules in communication, for instance, communication should clearly express the message and be in respect to the person with whom the individual is speaking with and the receiver must respond as a courtesy to the sender when the message has been received and understood. This is imperative in nonverbal communication as the message may not be as clear as it would be if it were spoken with mutually understood words than facial expressions or body language, the tone of the speaker also lacks in nonverbal communication. With all the different social constructs and norms of communication, researchers have come up with theories as to why persons behave the way they do in something as simple as a

Boose, G., Jaffe, J., Segal, J., & Smith. M. (2013). Nonverbal communication. Retrieved from https://classroom.phoenix.edu/afm214/secure/view-thread.jspa?threadID=58196411

Part B – To what extent do you think perceptual distortions are to blame for interpersonal misunderstanding? – 1500 words