Time Challenges in Treatment Delivery A new patient is scheduled to start treatment on Jim’s treatment machine on Monday. Everyone has warned him that the new patient is very angry

PERCEPTION CHECKING
An important strategy teachers can use to verify
what family members have communicated to
either paraphrasing or perception checking. This
strategy comprises three steps:
1. a restatement of what the teacher thought the
parent meant
2. two or more possible interpretations of the
behaviour
3. a request for clarification
SUSPENDING JUDGMENT
Most teachers would agree that it is essential to understand a family member’s ideas before forming an opinion, but many of us tend to make snap judgments before hearing them out, especially when a family member’s ideas or values conflict with our own. For example, a challenging parent who is critical, complaining, and overprotective may be masking feelings of inadequacy, guilt, or exclusion.
According to some researchers, empathy is the most important communication skill. Seeing things from another’s perspective is a critical communication skill.
According to Adler et al. (2016: 109-110), research tells us that it is difficult to demonstrate empathy for those who differ from us in age, sex, socioeconomic status, and intelligence. They state that to truly demonstrate empathy, we must learn three skills and attitudes:

Select one strategy and reflect on a time when you used it in your work with children
and families. You can use an example that occurred during paid work experience or field placements. If you can’t think of a time when you actually used a strategy, you can
discuss a time when you observed a colleague or supervisor use one, or you can describe a
hypothetical situation. Your answer should include the following: name of the strategy;
Details of the situation (related to working with children and families)
? An explanation of how using the strategy impacted the outcome of the situation
Consider a situation where the strategy was used to avoid a
misunderstanding during communication due to different perceptions as opposed to one where the strategy was used in general to support children and manage their behaviour
(this is a common error made with the strategy of empathy).