Blog Post 8

Essentially, communication breakdown occurs when either you or a person with whom you're communicating with does not understand the message you are trying to convey. In order to ensure the message is conveyed correctly, you must take a course of action to fix the misunderstood message in a way that is more easily understandable. This is called the "repair strategy." To communicate with a child, you must transmit messages that are appropriate for the child's particular needs and communication skills. You would use the appropriate language, and alter your communication method if you don't feel that they are understanding you. You can do this by altering either your expressive or receptive strategy.

If you want to use an expressive repair strategy, you can repeat, rephrase, simplify, elaborate, reduce, etc. You can also provide feedback, change the format into a question, and build off of what they already know. If you desire to repair receptively, you can say it again, ask for more information, clarify, ask for it to be told to you in a different way, and confirm or deny that you understood it. There is not one single repair strategy that can be used for every single conversation. As with most things, you must adjust according to that individual person's needs.

Repair strategies that are overused can affect or prohibit conversation, as discussed in the book. In my experience, many students need the message to be simplified. Once I express it in a different manner, I think ask for feedback to ensure they've understood. I never want to make the child feel that he or she cannot tell me if they don't understand, so I make sure to be aware of my students' needs and have an approachable, friendly attitude. I feel that as a teacher, it is our responsibility to know our students. We should be able to recognize the visible signs when they don't understand, and perhaps without calling on them or embarrassing them, we can just rephrase it on our own. We must always remember to confirm that they've understood before moving on. If they don't understand a concept, how will they be able to build knowledge using that prior concept? Ultimately, I feel that if teachers know their students well and have an attitude that is welcoming and approachable, students will not be afraid to communicate they need help, then we can proceed by giving them the appropriate assistance.