Unit 1 Assignment. Introduction. In my assignment I will be looking at an introduction to working with children, which will include showing a positive attitude, showing diversity and inclusive practice while working with children, and the policies and regulations that must be understood and upheld when working in placements. I will also be looking at creating good first impressions, the importance of first impressions towards placement and other professional settings, as well as an understanding of confidentiality and its importance.
TASK 2. D3. Speech therapist: A speech therapist is a professional who is trained to recognize, diagnose and help both children and adults who have problems with speaking such as language, annunciation, stutters and lisps for example. ‘The role of a speech and language therapist (SLT) is to assess and treat speech, language and communication problems in people of all ages to enable them to communicate to the best of their ability.
They may also work with people who have eating and swallowing problems. ’ – (www. nhscareers. nhs. uk) Speech therapy is used to help people with various different speech impediments, voice and language disorders, physical disadvantages that hinder speech, people who find it hard to talk in everyday situations or unable to speak or sound words properly. They also work with people who stutter, who have fluency and rhythm problems, inappropriate pitch or harsh voice and speech quality problems. A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds, whereas a language disorder refers to a difficulty understanding or putting words together in order to communicate’ – (princetonreview. com/careers, 2013). Speech therapists usually have one to one sessions with children, they are able to diagnose their problem through these sessions and figure out possible causes and solutions. For children, therapists will work closely with family of the child to get to know the child, possible triggers for mpediments like stuttering when under pressure or when nervous. Working with families can help to look at the bigger picture and get a better understanding of the child by those closest to them. As well as teachers and other health care professionals such as nurses and psychologists. According to princetonreveiws. com – ‘speech disorders are usually related to neurological, psychological, and physical conditions. Speech therapists must be able to work as a member of a team, which may include other healthcare professionals such a neurologists and psychiatrist’s’.
Therapists also work with families on treatment techniques to use at home and how to help modify behaviors in aid to avoid triggering or learning how to control what brings on the child’s impediment, for example if a child stammers when there is a lot of noise and they cannot get across what they are trying to say, parents and families can help to recognize this and control the environment to a certain degree to help the child.
It can be very stressful and hard for patients to deal with speech problems, to communicate and express themselves, therefore the help speech therapists provide a great positive impact on patients and families lives, providing them with a greater confidence and to be able to communicate in a way that maybe they never could before. D4, C1 & A1. Confidentiality is vital to uphold when working in any childcare profession. Confidentiality means practitioners should not talk about any children, families or staff outside of placement. Any knowledge gained, either personal or not general knowledge is to be kept confidential. ’ – (Tassoni, 2007). Settings have their own confidentiality agreements (copy of an example provided. ) and policies that must be upheld in accordance to their guidelines once agreed to. Failing to keep information confidential could result in legal consequences under the Data Protection Act 1998; as well as moral questioning of the practitioners’ professionalism, potential compromising of children and staff safety and consequences with the setting.
Being able to build and maintain trust with parents and families of children in the setting is very important for everyone. For families, practitioners keeping information confidential builds confidence as a professional and makes it easier for parents and staff to reach out or provide information because they know it will be in the right hands. Information can be kept in different ways, keeping very important strictly confidential information can be a good way of ensuring only people who need to, have access to the information by having passwords and sending emails when it is certain that only who it intended for can see it.
Files may be kept, letters, notes, documents, records of phone calls and meetings along with notes on what happened or what was said during phone calls or meetings also having an appropriate member of staff for security and back up providing a reliable proof as they were present. Any information must only be permitted to be seen by the right people for example a child’s primary carer can see their child’s files and key workers have access in order to check and be up to date with information.
There may be occasions when it is okay or important to share information, about children, a setting, a member or members of staff in that setting, or parents and carers. Information may be passed on when it is necessary for example when a child will be being picked up late, off sick or on holiday. Suitable staff like head of rooms and key workers or anyone who needs to know for planning activities ect, need to be informed of the changes for safety reasons along with keeping records.
In more important situations or concerns it is important to go to the right members of staff with any queries or concerns for a child, or other members of staff’s safety, if there are concerns or queries about a child’s safety then this must be taken to a member of staff of higher authority such as key workers or head teacher and they will take these concerns to be passed on to the proper authorities. D6.
It is important to value each child as an individual, understanding their individual needs and learning styles will help their learning and in a way that best suits them which can be done by recognizing how a child best learns and retains information in their setting for example: if a child seems to pick up on what they are being taught by listening to information rather than seeing it down or through pictures then that child’s preferred earning style is likely to be through auditory learning; which is hearing or listening to information, music or sounds. Another way to show valuing each child as an individual is to plan lessons according to different cultures or religious groups’ celebrations such as Diwali and Christmas. Children can join in planned activities themed to celebrations and events, and in the case of teaching children about the Christian holiday, children of Christian backgrounds could help during lessons and the explaining of the event & how they celebrate at home.
Practitioners can take this as an opportunity to plan some main activities around celebrations and events as well as creating a positive learning environment such as mother’s day – making cards and special paintings for mothers or if a child doesn’t have a mother to give a card to they can make one for an aunty or another family member or even for their dad or carer.
As well as religion, different back grounds and languages can be used to show diversity and inclusion throughout the setting, for example when children gather for quiet time or group time, they may sing nursery rhymes with the children, children speaking a different language such as polish, can be encouraged to sing the same song in their mother tongue to the class so they are included into the activity. D5, B1 & B2. A* My preferred learning style is visual, I like to be able to see information written down or put up on the board in front of me. Visual learners benefit from a variety of ocular stimulation. These students like images and written information, they like to be able to read instructions or text to learn to their best ability. When studying it is helpful for students to use different coloured highlighters or pens as they are reading or taking notes. These students may also be more sensitive to visual distractions. ’ – (teachingresources/learning_styles. htm) Bibliography * princetonreview. com/careers. (2013, Febuary 2). * http://www. nhscareers. nhs. uk/explore-by-career/allied-health-professions/care
