Workshop for Family and Child Development Practitioners

Practitioners can do this through frequently praising the children’s efforts, positive or not. This will consequently give the children a sense of love and belonging. Children’s confidence and positivity will form the foundation for the child’s future relationships; therefore if they don’t receive this from their practitioner then they will deter their holistic development.

This helps practitioner’s work together for the welfare of children. It promotes the Every Child Matters outcomes to reinforcing how important it is for all child careers to work together.

Autism is a developmental disorder, which is characterized by a dyad of difficulties in a) communication and social interaction and b) restricted interests and imagination (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might find it challenging to understand what other people think or what the reasons for their behaviours are, as their ‘theory of mind’ may not be well developed (Schuwerk, Vuori & Sodian, 2015). It is possible that this is why they might behave in socially inappropriate ways, being unable to differentiate between different contexts, while they might also find it difficult to make friends. Moreover, it is likely that they are fond of routines, repetition and structure (Carnahan, Musti-Rao, & Bailey, 2009), as they might be nervous with unknown, new situations. In addition, some of them might not do eye contact with other people, whereas some others might not endure to be touched and might have a difficulty developing speech (Jordan, 2005). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might sometimes be prohibited to initiate conversations and might struggle with finding different ways to play and behave, due to the possible deficit of imagination, which in some cases might result in them having a narrow sphere of interests. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this group of people is rather heterogeneous, as characteristics of autism may differ from one individual to another (Gwynette, 2013). Another point is that people with Autism

As child practitioners we must work on our skills in communicating with children because the way we communicate with them is important not only for their communication and language development, but also the development of our relationship with them. Young children often aren't able to express their thoughts and feelings in words, or express them poorly. Because of this, it's important that child practitioners can listen carefully and help children to learn how to express themselves and also provide what they need.

* Through positive inclusion all parents and carers will feel valued within the setting with their opinions listened to.

I am of the opinion that as a child practitioner an essential part of our work role will involve actively seeking to evolve and where apt build relationships. Consequently having a significant impact on children and young people’s lives.

POSITIVE: Maintaining good relations with Parents, Carers is an essential element in the healthy development of a child. This then enables the practitioner to understand the child more (i.e. how the child behaves at home and alternatively how the child behaves at school). Parents may be then able to voice any concerns they have with the practitioner and this will therefore result in a healthy parent – practitioner relationship allowing good communication which will aid in them both in aiding the child. Each communication technique needs to be varied for each child.

As an early year practitioner, it is very important to support the child development and confidence, help them learn about how to manage their feelings and behaviour and making relationship with others.

Autism is a rare disease that can be characterized by a “neurodevelopmental disorder categorized by the inability to relate to and perceive the environment in the realistic manner.” (Anthes, 1997) The signs of autism are mainly found in infants to young children usually between the ages of newborn to two years. The main symptoms that are discussed are “impairment in social interaction fixation of inanimate objects, inability to communicate normally, and resistance to changes in their daily routine.” (Anthes, 1997) Autism is a very understood disease but one thing most people do not know is that autism not only effects a child’s life mentally and physically, it also effects their social ability to have friends, play normally and even grow up

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be portrayed toward critical impairments in social interaction. It also includes restricted repeated behaviors, interests and activities. (Mayo Clinic staff, 2014)

Communication and explanation between agencies, practitioners and parents is effective as it can help families by giving them guidance and advice with their child when at home, this will help give the parents understanding about the child’s condition and may help them to feel less stressed as they will feel they have help and support from the team as they are specialists in the particular area.

The responsibility of the practitioner is to work as part of a team with other professionals and staff members effectively to bring children and parents the best possible service i.e. working with social workers, speech and language therapists, and family support workers. Practitioners must also have a working partnership with parents, to work effectively with the child as the parents are the primary carers and they will know what the child is like at home and what the child’s interests are. For example they would have a policy called ”parents as partners”.

In this assignment, I am going to review four cases, which will require a number of different communication skills focusing primarily on; developing a therapeutic relationship, communicating assertively, communicating effectively with an individual with a disability/impairment and communicating with individuals from another culture. I will discuss building a therapeutic relationship and effective communication with each patient.

). Laushey and Heflin (2000) led a study in an inclusive kindergarten classroom that used a different approach to the buddy program. The kindergarten students were paired each day with a buddy, and the buddies switched so they were not always with the same child with ASD (Laushey & Heflin, 2000). This method significantly increased social interaction of the students with ASD and the students without disabilities also gained increased social skills (Laushey & Heflin, 2000). Bass and Mulick (2007) articulated the importance of social play skills in relation to the development of social, cognitive and cultural competence, as well as social relationships.

This article was researched and published by a reputable organization. It acknowledges the significance of parents continually evaluating their children