My task was to work with Nicky who was one of the service user’s who actually had slight hearing problem. I had to listen to him and work out what level of ability in reading he is at. This task ensured each person communicating has each other’s attention in a given moment. I felt that this one-to-one task with Nicky would make him feel special and cared for as it is a mean of saying to him that I am making time for him and he will have my undivided attention.
Even though Nicky was a good reader overall as he tried his best at reading with me, but every time he made a mistake or pronounced a word wrong I would say “No Nicky that’s wrong” he felt that it was me who was wrong and could not read properly so he just totally ignored that it may have been that he didn’t not hear the right answer clearly or just felt embarrassed that he was making mistakes during the task. This task may have been overwhelming for him due to him not having a one to one attention before or he may have felt isolated through a lack of opportunity to communicate with the other care workers.
This task had taken place in a room with many other service users who were doing a variety of different activities. I placed my chairs right opposite to him so it would enable me and Nicky to get the privacy of space. After he had finished reading the book i asked him what he understood about it and whether or not he enjoyed reading it for this type of communication I used one of the non-verbal skills which are reflective listening. I asked him some questions relevant to the book to ensure that he fully understands what he was reading.
Even though I could not understand him properly due to the noise in the back I figured out half of what he was telling me about the book. He actually had a fairly good idea about what the book was actually about because he has read it before. Listening to the Nicky helped his confidence level to build and to not be so shy anymore. I used eye-contact to help me listen and understand what Nicky was saying as this gave me an idea of how he felt towards reading the book. Having eye-contact helped Nicky feel a lot more comfortable with me.
The book which I had chosen for Nicky to read to me consisted of a lot of pictures in it and helped Nicky in a positive way. My task was to get three service users into a group and work with them separately as the other service users in the care home also had carers working with them in groups. My task was to help them paint a picture of themselves. The service user’s names were Annie, Kim and Sally. Annie had dementia, Kim had weak joints/muscles and Tony who had behaviour problems.
All three service users in my group had a chance to speak and express their opinions. I helped them with any problems they had with the painting and I just had to assess them on how well they paint together as a group. There was a lot of communication skills used in the interaction. Annie had dementia she kept on forgetting her task on what she had to be drawing; a few times she got mistaken for drawing the other service user’s rather than herself, so I had to constantly remind her to draw herself.
Kim kept on dropping the paintbrushes as it was quite big and thick for her to hold on to at times. Tony had behaviour problems; he kept on making a lot of noise during the task because of the other service users in the room doing other tasks, this lead him to get distracted easily and could on focus properly on the actual task in hand. He was sitting in between Kim and Annie and because of that he kept on pushing their arms with he’s elbows; he just couldn’t keep his arms to his self and just paint.
He could not sit in one place and kept on moving and looking to other places constantly. There was a lot of communication skills used in the interaction. The first communication skill I used with them was appropriate language. It was used so that they could listen and understand what I was saying, I had to chose formal English language as I found that an appropriate language to use with them. I also used a non-verbal skill in the group interaction because I could encourage the service user’s to participate in the interaction a lot more.