My Experiments in Communication Skills Personal Statement

My Experiments in Communication Skills - Personal Statement Example Social workers are designated to collect information from various sources related to a particular issue and sort out the relatively relevant ones for the references according to the requirements of the context. Involvement of verbal, written and non-verbal elements of communication makes the interaction more feasible for better understanding the situations for optimum resolution. While negotiating the problems of individuals with possible solutions, suggestions are also required from experts in the concerned field of excellence. Most of the contexts related to the social worker’s career demand consultations for better conclusions. The ability to communicate well is required for listening to the issues through interpersonal interactions and collecting the resources for developing a beneficial solution from expert opinions. When I personally evaluate my own potentials to the effect of communication, I find some defects in my oral as well as written patterns. These problems are identified with a large majority – while some of them speak rather quickly it lacks clarity of the listener. Cultural differences and the influences of the developmental stages are considered as the factors responsible for most of this condition. On the other hand, while written communication is concerned, lack of professional experience pulls me back from making most of the effect. I understand that my abilities to organize the message and chronologically listen to the information have to be enhanced. These potential variables are those that make a professional social worker distinctively able to interpret and resolve issues of clients. With the help of this project, I have developed the methods of personal assessment of communication abilities and designed certain tools to modify my present skill level. I think following certain principles like convincing nature, patient and active listening, abstinence form argument, and well-timed presentation of ideas as the basic guidelines for a possible improvement.

Evaluation of a Current Child Health Issue Essay

Evaluation of a Current Child Health Issue - Essay Example Depression, another emotional disorder, is also on the rise with young people with at least 2 per cent of children under 12 and 5 per cent of teenagers suffering from depression (op.cit.). Depression is associated with â€Å"feelings of extreme sadness† (NHS, 2010, para.6) which not only last for long periods of time, but is also recurrent and may further develop into suicidal tendencies (ibid). Brent and Birmaher (2002) noted that depression in both children and adolescents is not always demonstrated by sadness, but can take the form of irritability, boredom and the inability to find pleasure. Younger adolescents may show more anxiety-related symptoms, clinging behaviours, unexplained fears and physical symptoms, while older adolescents may experience a greater loss of interest and pleasure and also have more morbid thinking (Kalb & Raymond, 2003; Mondimore, 2002). Lewinsohn et al. (1998) found that nearly 89% of depressed adolescents reported disturbances in sleep. With youn ger children in the early childhood stage, depression is manifested by â€Å"masked† symptoms such as a complaint of stomach ache or aggression (Carlson & Cantwell, 1980; Hazel, 2002; Luby et al., 2003). These symptoms are fairly common in children, so it is not usually identified as a depressive symptom. However, when young children have these symptoms and are also seen to be irritable, bored or not finding pleasure, especially in play which is inherently fun, then they may present symptoms of early childhood depression (Brent and Birmaher, 2002). The difficulty with reaching a clear diagnosis of depression at this stage is that young children are perceived to be developmentally too immature to experience the effects of such a heavy emotion (Stalets & Luby, 2006). On the other hand, studies have shown that in fact children at this stage are far more emotionally sophisticated than they are given credit for (Denham et al., 2002; Denham et al., 2003; Saarni, 2000; Lewis et al., 1992; Lewis et al., 1989). Depression in very young children results in experiencing complicated emotions such as guilt and shame (Luby et al., 2009) and as younger children â€Å"mask† their depression it can be harder to identify a need early on. Some children who are depressed may actually avidly participate in activities with others such as singing and dancing and even exaggerate their actions. This makes diagnosis even harder and early intervention difficult. Depression can develop from a combination of different factors (risk factors) such as genetics, physiological, environmental and socio-economic factors such as parent’s unemployment , sickness and large families in small houses, bullying of peers or abuse from adults (Northen, 2004). If these risk factors are already present in the child’s life then significant life changes such as a death of a significant other, parental divorce and other tragedies will greatly increase the likelihood of childhood de pression. One particularly important factor that affects a child’s likelihood of developing depression is the quality of their relationship with their family. Brofenbrenner’s Ecological model (1979) explains that family is part of the child’s microsystem and the primary providers of the child’