speech on importance of communication

Essay on Importance of Communication for Students and Children

500+ words essay on importance of communication:.

Communication is one of the important tools that aid us to connect with people. Either you are a student or a working professional, good communication is something that will connect you far ahead. Proper communication can help you to solve a number of issues and resolve problems. This is the reason that one must know how to communicate well. The skills of communication essential to be developed so that you are able to interact with people. And able to share your thoughts and reach out to them. All this needs the correct guidance and self-analysis as well.

Meaning of Communication

The word communication is basically a process of interaction with the people and their environment . Through such type of interactions, two or more individuals influence the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of each other.

Such interactions happen through the exchange of information through words, gestures, signs, symbols, and expressions. In organizations, communication is an endless process of giving and receiving information and to build social relationships.

Importance of Communication

Communication is not merely essential but the need of the hour. It allows you to get the trust of the people and at the same time carry better opportunities before you. Some important points are as follows –

Help to Build Relationships 

No matter either you are studying or working, communication can aid you to build a relationship with the people. If you are studying you communicate with classmates and teachers to build a relationship with them. Likewise in offices and organizations too, you make relationships with the staff, your boss and other people around.

Improve the Working Environment 

There are a number of issues which can be handled through the right and effective communication. Even planning needs communication both written as well as verbal. Hence it is essential to be good in them so as to fill in the communication gap.

Foster strong team

Communication helps to build a strong team environment in the office and other places. Any work which requires to be done in a team. It is only possible if the head communicates everything well and in the right direction.

Find the right solutions

Through communication, anyone can find solutions to even serious problems. When we talk, we get ideas from people that aid us to solve the issues. This is where communication comes into play. Powerful communication is the strength of any organization and can help it in many ways.

Earns more respect

If your communication skills are admirable, people will love and give you respect. If there is any problem, you will be the first person to be contacted. Thus it will increase your importance. Hence you can say that communications skills can make a big change to your reputation in society.

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Don’t Go Overboard With Your Point

The conversation is about to express your thoughts. And to let the other person know what you feel. It is not mean to prove that your point is correct and the other person is wrong. Don’t Overboard other With Your Point.

Watch Your Words

Before you say something to Watch Your Words. At times, out of anger or anxiousness, we say somethings that we must not say. Whenever you are in a professional meeting or in some formal place, where there is a necessity of communicating about your product or work then it is advised to practice the same beforehand

Communication is the greatest importance. It is important to sharing out one’s thoughts and feelings to live a fuller and happier life. The more we communicate the less we suffer and the better we feel about everything around. However, it is all the more necessary to learn the art of effective communication to put across ones point well.

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• Relationships

Why Communication Matters

We communicate to create, maintain, and change relationships and selves..

Posted July 15, 2021 | Reviewed by Vanessa Lancaster

• Why Relationships Matter
• Find a therapist to strengthen relationships
• How we communicate helps relationships get off on the right foot, navigate problems, and change over time.
• In communication, we develop, create, maintain, and alter our relationships.
• We communicate to work our way through family changes and challenges in verbal and non-verbal ways.

I remember seeing a poster on my junior high classroom wall: “Communication is the Beginning of Understanding.” This spoke to me at the time. Yet, like so many people, I had never really thought much about communication. I would have described communication as sending and receiving messages.

Communication Is More Than Sending and Receiving Messages

In reality, communication is often about transmitting information. We send and receive messages with people in our lives. Daily, much of our communication consists of coordinating schedules, “What time are you getting home for dinner?” and negotiating whose turn it is to do the dishes, pay the bills, or take dinner to a friend who is ill. We send messages like, “It is your turn to let the dog out” and receive messages like, “Don’t forget to get dog food at the store” (if you have not guessed, a lot of the messages in my house are about the dog).

We might also blame problems on communication, talking about “communication breakdowns” or on a “lack of communication.” If we think about communication in these ways, we have missed so much that is important about communication. We have neglected how and why communication matters.

Communication Matters to Creating and Changing Relationships

We become aware of how Communication Matters when

• We confront issues with work-life balance.
• We experience positive events like the birth of a baby or winning an award.
• We have a friend does who does not do or say what we expect.
• We have disagreements over religious beliefs or political values.

Both positive and challenging events affect, reflect, and change our identity and the identity of our personal and family relationships. What do I mean by this? How did these relationships come into being? Well, think about the last time you started a new friendship or had a new member join your family. Through what you and the other person said and did, what we’d call verbal and nonverbal communication , these relationships took shape.

Sometimes relationships develop easily and clearly. They are healthy and pleasant. Other times, relationships develop in stress and storm and may be healthy or not. How we communicate helps relationships get off on the right foot, navigate problems, and change over time.

What is important to understand is that relationships are talked into (and out of) being. In communication, we develop, create, maintain, and alter our relationships. As we communicate, we become and change who we are. Think about how you have grown and changed as you communicate at home, at work, with friends, and in your community.

Communication Matters to Relationship and Family Identity

As we communicate, we co-create relationships and our own identity. As you think about your close relationships and your family, you can likely recall important events, both positive and negative, that impacted how you understand your relationship and yourself as a person.

Consider this example: one of my college students described a childhood family ritual of going out on the front lawn on Christmas Eve. The family sang Christmas carols and threw carrots on the roof for Santa’s reindeers. The family still does this annual carrot-throwing ritual in adulthood. You can picture them bringing their sometimes confused new partners and spouses out in the snow to throw carrots onto the roof and sing.

Why does this family still throw carrots and sing? Through this seemingly silly ritual, the family celebrates who they are as a family and the togetherness that is important to them. The family creates space for new people to join the family. Through their words and actions, members of the family teach their new partners how to be family members through carrot throwing and other vital experiences.

I am sure you can point to experiences that have been central to creating your relationships and your identity.

Communication Matters as We Face Change and Challenges

We also communicate to work our way through family changes and challenges. Family members or others may have different expectations of what our family and personal identity or should be. This is especially true when a family does not fit dominant cultural models, such as single-parent families, multi-ethnic families, stepfamilies, LGBTQ families, or adoptive families.

For me, becoming a stepfamily was highly challenging. We became a stepfamily when I was 12 years old. My mother had recently died, and my Dad surprised us, kids, introducing us to the woman he wanted to marry. We no longer matched the other families in the neighborhood where we’d lived most of our lives. We certainly did not feel like a family overnight.

It took my stepfamily several years to create an understanding of what it meant to be a family. As we interacted, and with many mistakes and some successes, we slowly came to understand what we needed and expected from each other to be a family.

For all of us, relationship and family identity is constantly developing and changing. In my case, I remember my stepmom reminding me to wear a jacket when going out in the evening, even into my 40s, and giving me advice about my health. At some point, our roles changed, and now, as she moves toward her 80s, more often than not, I am in the role of asking about her health and helping her with significant decisions. What it means to be a mother or daughter and what we expect of each other and ourselves change as we interact.

Communication Matters . Whether we are negotiating whose turn it is to feed the dog, how to become a parent, how to interact with a difficult co-worker, or how to celebrate with a friend who won a major award, it is in communication that we learn what to do and say. This is what I will write about in this blog as I reflect on what I have learned as a professor and researcher of interpersonal and family communication. I invite you to go on this journey with me. I hope to give you insights into your communication.

Communication Matters. Communication is the Beginning of Understanding . It is an exciting and ever-changing journey.

Baxter, L. A. (2004). Relationships as dialogues. Personal Relationships, 11 , 1-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2004.00068.x

Braithwaite, D. O., Foster, E. A., & Bergen, K. M. (2018). Social construction theory: Communication co-creating families. In D. O. Braithwaite, E. A. Suter, & K. Floyd. (Eds.). Engaging theories in family communication: Multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 267-278). Routledge.

Braithwaite, D. O., Waldron, V. R., Allen, J., Bergquist, G., Marsh, J., Oliver, B., Storck, K., Swords, N., & Tschampl-Diesing, C. (2018). “Feeling warmth and close to her”: Communication and resilience reflected in turning points in positive adult stepchild-stepparent relationships. Journal of Family Communication, 18 , 92-109. doi: 10.1080/15267431.2017.1415902

Dawn O. Braithwaite, Ph.D., a professor of communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studies families and close relationships, especially step- and chosen families.

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Speech on Importance Of Communication

Communication is like a bridge between people. It’s the way you share your ideas and feelings with others. When you communicate well, you understand and are understood.

If you don’t communicate, it’s like living on an island. No one knows what you think or feel. So, good communication is really important.

1-minute Speech on Importance Of Communication

Hello everyone.

Communication is like the air we breathe. It is everywhere. It’s the bridge that connects people, ideas, and feelings. Without communication, we would be like islands, isolated and far apart.

Think about your day. You talk to your friends, your family, your teachers. You read books, send messages, share pictures. All these activities involve communication. It’s like a magic key that opens the door to understanding and connection.

Now, let’s think about a world without communication. You can’t express your feelings or ideas. You can’t understand what others are saying. It’s like being in a room full of people, but everyone is silent. It’s confusing, isn’t it? That’s why communication is so important.

Communication is not just about talking. It’s also about listening. When you listen, you learn. You understand what others are feeling, what they need, what they dream about. Listening is a gift we give to others. It shows respect and love.

But remember, communication can also hurt. Words can be like arrows. They can wound and harm. So, we must be careful. We must use words that are kind, respectful, and understanding.

To sum up, communication is the heart of life. It brings people together. It helps us understand each other. It helps us grow as individuals and as a community. Without communication, we would be lost. So, let’s celebrate this gift and use it wisely.

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• Essay on Importance Of Communication

2-minute Speech on Importance Of Communication

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, today I want to talk about something very important. It’s called communication. Yes, you heard it right – communication. We do it all the time without even realizing it. We talk, we write, we listen, and we even use our faces and bodies to show what we feel. All of these are parts of communication. But why is it so important?

Well, let’s imagine a world without communication. You can’t tell your friends what you feel, you can’t ask your teacher a question, you can’t even tell your mom what you want for dinner! Sounds hard, doesn’t it? That’s because communication is like a bridge. It connects us to other people. It helps us share our thoughts, our feelings, our ideas. Without it, we would be like islands, all alone in a big sea.

But communication is not just about talking. It’s also about listening. Imagine you tell your friend a secret, and they don’t listen. How would that make you feel? Probably not very good. Listening is a big part of communication. It shows that we respect other people and that we care about what they have to say.

Now, let’s think about another part of communication – writing. Writing helps us keep track of our thoughts. It helps us remember things. It can also help us share our ideas with people who are not here with us. Think about a letter, a book, or even a post on social media. All of these are ways we can communicate with writing.

And don’t forget about non-verbal communication. That’s things like smiling, waving, or even rolling your eyes. These actions can say just as much as words sometimes. They show others how we feel without us having to say a word.

Lastly, I want to tell you why communication is so important for our future. In the world we live in today, we need to work together to solve big problems. And to do that, we need to communicate. We need to share our ideas, listen to others, write down our thoughts, and show our feelings. Only then can we truly work together.

So, my friends, let’s remember the importance of communication. Let’s talk, let’s listen, let’s write, and let’s show our feelings. Because together, with good communication, we can do great things. Thank you.

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1.4 The Importance of Communication

Communication skills are essential in all areas of life.

Communication is used in virtually all aspects of everyday life. In order to explore how communication is integrated into all parts of our lives, let us divide up our lives into four spheres: academic, professional, personal, and civic . The se spheres overlap a n d influence one another . After all, our personal experience is brought into the classroom, much of what goes on in a classroom is present in our professional and personal environments, and the classroom has long been seen as a place to foster personal growth and prepare students to become active and responsible members of society .

Academic Success

You will bring your current communication-related knowledge, skills, and abilities to the classroom. Aside from wanting to earn a good grade, you may also be genuinely interested in becoming a better communicator. Research shows that even people who are poor communicators can improve their verbal, nonverbal, and interpersonal communication skills by taking communication courses ( Zabava & Wolvin , 1993). Communication skills are also tied to academic success. Poor listening skills have been shown to contribute significantly to failure in a person’s first year of college. Also, students who take communication courses report having more confidence in their communication abilities, and these students have higher grade point averages and are less likely to drop out of school. Much of what we do in a classroom, whether it is the interpersonal interactions with our classmates and instructor, individual or group presentations, writing assignments, asking questions, or listening, can be used to build or add to a foundation of good communication skills and knowledge that can carry through t o professional, personal, and civic contexts .  

Professional Skills

The Corporate Rec r uiters Survey Report ( Graduate Management Admission Council, 2017 , p. 50 ) found that employers in h ealth c are and pharmacy, technology, nonprofit and government, and products and services industries list oral, written, listening, and presentation communication skills in their top five skills sought for midlevel positions. Adaptability was also ranked in the top five in three out of the four industries— the ability to be adaptable can be the result of a person’s ability to perceive, interpret, and share information. The survey also found that the need for teamwork skills is growing in deman d. The ability to follow a leader, delegation skills, valuing the op inions of others, cross-cultural sensitivity, and adaptability were listed as t eamwork ski lls , and these skills can also be the result of one’s communication skills.  

Table 1.1. Top Five Skills Employers Seek, in Order of Required Proficiency, by Industry

Note: Adapted from Corporate Recruiters Survey Report 2017 , by the Graduate Management Admission Council, p. 50. https://www.mba.com/-/media/files/gmac/research/employment-outlook/2017-gmac-corporate-recruiters-web-release.pdf?la=en

Desired communication skills vary from career to career, but again, the academic sphere provides a foundation onto which you can build communication skills specific to your professional role or field of study. Poor listening skills, lack of conciseness, and the inability to give constructive feedback have been identified as potential communication challenges in professional contexts. Despite the well-documented need for communication skills in the professional world, many students still resist engaging in communication classes. Perhaps people think they already have good communication skills or can improve their skills on their own. Although either of these may be true for some, studying communication can only help.  

Personal Communication Skills

Many students know from personal experience and from the prevalence of communication counselling on television talk shows and in self-help books that communication forms, maintains, and ends our interpersonal relationships, but they do not know the extent to which that occurs. Although we learn from experience, until we learn specific vocabulary and develop a foundational knowledge of communication concepts and theories, we do not have the necessary tools to make sense of these experiences. Just having a vocabulary to name the communication phenomena in our lives increases our ability to consciously alter our communication to achieve our goals, avoid miscommunication, and analyze and learn from our inevitable mistakes.

As mentioned earlier in the chapter, communication is required for us to meet our personal physical , instrumental , relational , and identity needs.

• Physical needs are needs that keep our bodies and minds functioning.
• Instrumental needs are needs that help us get things done in our day-to-day lives and achieve short- and long-term goals. 
• Relational needs are needs that help us maintain social bonds and interpersonal relationships.
• Identity needs include our need to present ourselves to others and be thought of in particular and desired ways.  

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement   refers to working to make a difference in our communities by improving the quality of life of community members; raising awareness about social, cultural, or political issues (Image 1.10); or participating in a wide variety of political and nonpolitical processes (Ehrlich, 2000).  The civic part of our lives is developed through engagement with the decision making that goes on in our society at small-group, local, state, regional, national, and international levels. Such involvement ranges from serving on a neighbourhood advisory board to sending an email to a political representative. Discussions and decisions that affect our communities happen around us all the time, but it takes time and effort to become part of that process. Communication scholars have been aware of the connections between communication and a person’s civic engagement or citizenship for thousands of years. Aristotle, who wrote the first and most influential comprehensive book on communication 2,400 years ago, taught that it is through our voice, our ability to communicate, that we engage with the world around us and participate in our society .  

Diversity in Communication

Communication is the sharing of understanding and meaning (Pearson & Nelson, 2000), but what is intercultural communication ? If you answered “the sharing of understanding and meaning across cultures,” you’d be close, but what is a culture ? Culture is defined by more than ethnicity, race, or geography. A culture can exist wherever there is a group of people with shared beliefs, attitudes, values, and traditions. Multiple factors can shape a culture, including but not limited to age, gender, ethnicity, race, geography, workplace settings, family, abilities, and interests. According to Rogers and Steinfatt (1999), intercultural communication is the exchange of information among individuals who are “unalike culturally.” Let’s explore what intercultural communication can look like.

A culture’s beliefs, attitudes, values, and traditions are represented and expressed by the behaviours of its members. The language we use, the holidays we celebrate, the clothes we wear, the movies we watch, or the video games we play are just some of the ways we express our culture. Environment also shapes a culture, and a culture can shape the environment. For example, a person can grow up in a mountainous region and value the environment. If the person moves to a beach town, they may display pictures of their favourite mountains and participate in an outdoor club to continue to express and engage in their culture. Culture also involves the psychological aspects of our expectations of the communication context. For example, if we are raised in a culture where males speak while females are expected to remain silent, the context of the communication interaction governs behaviour, itself a representation of culture. From the choice of words (message), to how we communicate (in person or by email), to how we acknowledge understanding with a nod or a glance (nonverbal feedback), to the internal and external interference, all aspects of communication are influenced by culture. 

Can there be intercultural communication within a culture? If all communication is intercultural, then the answer would be yes, but we still have to prove our case. Imagine a three-generation family living in one household. This family is a culture, but let’s look a bit closer. The grandparents may represent another time and different values from the grandchildren. The parents may have a different level of education and pursue different careers from the grandparents. The schooling the children receive may prepare them for yet other careers. From music to food preferences to how work is done may vary across time—singer Elvis Presley may seem like ancient history to the children. The communication across generations represents intercultural communication, even if only to a limited degree.

Another example is student culture. Let’s consider what other cultures likely impact the student culture at a school, university, or college. A group of students are likely all similar in age and educational level (Image 1.11). Do gender and the societal expectations of roles influence their interactions? Of course. And so we see that, among these students, the boys and girls not only communicate in distinct ways, but not all boys and girls are the same. A group of siblings may have common characteristics, but they will still have differences, and these differences contribute to intercultural communication. We are each shaped by our upbringing, and it influences our worldview, what we value, and how we interact with each other. We create culture, and it creates us. 

If intercultural communication is the exchange of information among individuals who are “unalike culturally,” after reflecting on our discussion and its implications, you may arrive at the idea that ultimately we are each “a culture of one”—we are simultaneously a part of community and its culture(s) and separate from it in the unique combination that represents us as an individual. All of us are separated by a matter of degrees from each other even if we were raised on the same street, have parents of similar educational background and profession, and have many other things in common.

Communication with yourself is called  intrapersonal communication , and it may also be intracultural, as you may only represent one culture, but most people belong to many groups, each with their own culture. Within our imaginary intergenerational home, how many cultures do you think we might find? If we only consider the parents, and consider work one culture and family another, we now have two. If we were to look more closely, we would find many more groups, and the complexity would grow exponentially. Does a conversation with yourself ever involve competing goals, objectives, needs, wants, or values? How did you learn of those goals or values? Through communication within and among individuals, they themselves are representative of many cultures. We struggle with the demands of each group and their expectations, and could consider this internal struggle intercultural conflict, or simply intercultural communication. 

Culture is part of the very fabric of our thought, and we cannot separate ourselves from it, even when we leave home, defining ourselves anew in work and achievement. Every business or organization has a culture, and within what may be considered a global culture, there are many subcultures or co-cultures. For example, consider the difference between the sales and accounting departments in a corporation—we can quickly see two distinct groups, each with their own symbols, vocabulary, and values. Within each group there may also be smaller groups, and each member of every department comes from a distinct background that in itself influences behaviour and interaction.

Intercultural communication is a part of our everyday lives and occurs interpersonally (with others) and intrapersonally (within ourselves). Intercultural communication competency is rooted in understanding the cultures around us and adapting our communication to establish, maintain, and grow positive intercultural relationships.  

Relating Theory to Real Life

Consider the definition of culture: 

• What cultures do you feel you are a part of? What beliefs, attitudes, values, traditions, and behaviours represent your cultures?
• What cultures do you see within your own family?
• What cultural groups will you encounter in your future professional role?
• What will you need to learn to be a competent intercultural communicator in the workplace?

Ethical Communication in the Workplace

As demonstrated by the communication models presented earlier in this chapter, when we communicate, there is an immediate impact on others. This means communication has broad ethical implications. Not only do we need to learn how to communicate, but we also need to become ethical communicators by learning how to communicate the “right” way. But what does that look like?

Communication ethics deals with the process of negotiating and reflecting on our actions and communication regarding what we believe to be right and wrong. For example, we may make the choice to communicate our opinions about education to others. We would undergo a process of negotiating the ethics of this decision, such as to whom is it okay to communicate our opinions? When is it appropriate to tell others about our personal opinions? What details about our opinions is it okay to share? What is the right method for sharing our opinion? In communication ethics, we are more concerned with the decisions people make about communicating what is right and wrong than the systems, philosophies, or religions that inform those decisions. Much of ethics is a grey area. Although we talk about making decisions in terms of what is right and what is wrong, the choice is rarely that simple. Aristotle said that we should act “to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way.” This quote connects to communication competence, which focuses on communicating effectively and appropriately.

We all make choices daily that are more ethical or less ethical, and we may confidently make a decision only to learn later that it wasn’t the most ethical option. In any given situation, multiple options may seem appropriate, but we can only choose one. If, in a situation, we make a decision and reflect on it, and then realize we could have made a more ethical choice, does that make us a bad person? Although many behaviours can be easily labelled as ethical or unethical, communication isn’t always as clear. Physically assaulting someone is generally thought of as unethical and illegal, but many instances of hurtful speech, or even what some would consider hate speech, have been protected as free speech. This shows the complicated relationship between protected speech, ethical speech, and the law. In some cases, people see it as their ethical duty to communicate information that they feel is in the public’s best interest. The people behind WikiLeaks, for example, have released thousands of classified documents related to wars, intelligence gathering, and diplomatic communication. WikiLeaks claims that exposing this information forces politicians and leaders to be accountable and keeps the public informed, but government officials claim that the release of the information should be considered a criminal act. Both parties consider their own communication ethical and the other’s communication unethical, so who is right?

Since many of the choices we make when it comes to ethics are situational, contextual, and personal, various professional fields have developed codes of ethics to help guide members through areas that might otherwise be grey or uncertain. A profession’s code of ethics describes what ethical behaviours , including communication, are expected of any member of the profession . Table 1.2 below lists a few examples of professions and which communication behaviours are considered ethical and expected as described in that  profession’s code of ethics . Looking across different professions, we can see that ethical communication is expected in all service areas and that communication skills are key to meeting professional standards.

Table 1.2. Professional Organizations and Ethical Communication Expectation

• What situations might arise in your future professional role that will require you to communicate ethically?
• Why is it important for you , others, your workplace, and your community to be co nfident in communicating ethically ?

Dynamic Communication Skills Are Needed in Current Workplaces

Communication is key to your success in your current workplace.

Your current ability to communicate comes from past experience, which can be an effective teacher. Now is the time to examine your current skillset and compare it to current workplace needs and skills that have been proven necessary when working on teams. “Great teams are distinguished from good teams by how effectively they communicate. Great team communication is more than the words that are said or written. Power is leveraged by the team’s ability to actively listen, clarify, understand, and live by the principle that ‘everything communicates.’ The actions, the tone, the gestures, the infrastructure, the environment, and the things that are not done or said speak and inform just as loudly as words” (O’Rourke & Yarbrough, 2008).

Workplace environments have evolved. An article in the Harvard Business Review states that current workplace teams are more “diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic (with frequent changes in membership). But while teams face new hurdles, their success still hinges on a core set of fundamentals for group collaboration” (Haas & Mortensen, 2016). Haas and Mortensen further describe four conditions that need to be established for effective collaboration: compelling direction (when a team establishes explicit goals), strong structure (the team has the right mix of members, and the right processes and norms in place to guide behaviour), supportive context (the team has a reward system, an information system, and an educational system in place to enable progress), and a shared mindset (when a team develops a common identity and understanding). Communication is central to establishing all four conditions. Effective teams and groups in current workplace environments need effective communication. Now is the time to consider what communication skills you have and which ones you need to grow to effectively contribute to your future team. 

Communication Merges You and Them

When we join a workplace team, communication is a non-negotiable skill in a complex environment. Being able to communicate allows us to share a part of ourselves, connect with others, and meet our needs on a team. Being unable to communicate might mean losing, hiding, or minimizing a part of yourself. Sharing with others feels vulnerable. For some, this may be a positive challenge, whereas for others it may be discouraging, but in all cases, your ability to communicate is central to your expression of self.

On the other side of the coin, your communication skills help you understand others on a team—not just their words, but also their tone of voice, their nonverbal gestures, and the format of their written documents provide you with clues about who they are and what their values and priorities may be. Expressing yourself and understanding others are key functions of an effective team member and part of the process of becoming an effective team (Image 1.13).  

Communication Influences How You Learn

You need to begin the process of improving your communication skills with the frame of mind that it will require effort, persistence, and self-correction. You learn to speak in public by first having conversations, then by answering questions and expressing your opinions in class, and finally by preparing and delivering a “stand-up” speech. Similarly, you learn to write by first learning to read, then by writing and learning to think critically. Your speaking and writing are reflections of your thoughts, experience, and education, and part of that combination is your level of experience listening to other speakers, reading documents and various styles of writing, and studying formats similar to what you aim to produce. Speaking and writing are both key communication skills that you will use in teams and groups.

As you study group communication, you may receive suggestions for improvement and clarification from professionals more experienced than yourself. Take their suggestions as challenges to improve—don’t give up when your first speech or first draft does not communicate the message you intended. Stick with it until you get it right. Your success in communicating is a skill that applies to almost every field of work, and it makes a difference in your relationships with others. Remember that luck is simply a combination of preparation and timing. You want to be prepared to communicate well when given the opportunity. Each time you do a good job, your success will bring more success.

Communication Represents You and Your Employer

You want to make a good first impression on your friends and family, on your instructors, and on your employer. They all want you to convey a positive image because it reflects on them. In your career, you will represent your business or company in teams and groups, and your professionalism and attention to detail will reflect positively on you and set you up for success.

As an effective member of the team, you will benefit from having the ability to communicate clearly and with clarity. You will use these skills for the rest of your life. Positive improvements in these skills will have a positive impact on your relationships, your prospects for employment, and your ability to make a difference in the world.

Communication Skills Are Desired by Business and Industry

Oral and written communication proficiencies are consistently ranked in the top 10 desirable skills by employer surveys year after year. In fact, high-powered business executives sometimes hire consultants to coach them in sharpening their communication skills. According to the National Association of Colleges Job Outlook 2023 survey (Gray, 2022), the top five attributes that employers seek on a candidate’s resumé are the following:

• Problem-solving skills
• Ability to work on a team
• Strong work ethic
• Analytical and quantitative skills
• Written communication skills
• Technical skills

Knowing this, you can see that one way for you to be successful and increase your promotion potential is to improve your ability to speak and write effectively.

Teams and groups are almost universal across all fields because no one person has all the skills, knowledge, or ability to do everything with an equal degree of excellence. Employees work with each other in manufacturing and service industries on a daily basis. An individual with excellent communication skills is an asset to every organization. No matter what career you plan to pursue, learning to interact, contribute, and excel in groups and teams will help you get there.

Digital and Electronic Communication Are Here to Stay

Computers and the internet entered the world in the 1940s and have been on the rise ever since. According to Jotform (2021), a global pandemic necessitated the use of digital and electronic communication because people were required to work from home as much as possible. Digital and electronic communication tools such as video-conferencing platforms, cloud storage, messaging platforms, and digital forms are now widely used and easily accessible. It’s not clear yet what digital and electronic communication methods will remain in use; however, because of their prevalence, we need to consider our communication skills in these digital and electronic environments.

Netiquette refers to etiquette, or protocols and norms for communication, when communicating using digital and electronic methods. Whatever digital device you use, written communication in the form of brief messages, or texting, has become a practical way to connect when talking on the phone or when meeting in person would be cumbersome. Texting is not useful for long or complicated messages, and careful consideration should be given to the audience. Email is frequently used to communicate among co-workers and has largely replaced print hard-copy letters for external (outside the company) correspondence, as well as taking the place of memos for internal (within the company) communication (Guffey, 2008). Email can be very useful for messages that have slightly more content than a text message, but it is still best used for fairly brief messages. Emails may be informal in personal contexts, but business communication requires attention to detail, an awareness that your email reflects you and your company, and a professional tone so that the email may be forwarded to a third party, if needed. Remember that when these tools are used for business, they need to convey professionalism and respect.

• Knowing what communication skills employers and current workplace environments require, what skills are you strong in right now? What skills do you need to develop?
• How do you see face-to-face and digital and electronic communication skills being similar and/or different? Where do you see face-to-face and digital and electronic communication in your future professional role?

Attribution

Unless otherwise indicated, material on this page has been reproduced or adapted from the following resource:

University of Minnesota. (2016).  Communication in the real world: An introduction to communication studies . University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication , licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 , except where otherwise noted.

Alberta Health Services (AHS). (2023). Ethics & compliance . https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/about/Page645.aspx

Alberta Health Services (AHS). (2016). Code of conduct . https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/about/policies/ahs-pub-code-of-conduct.pdf

Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA). (2021). Code of ethics: A guide for ethical and moral decision-making for recreational therapists . https://www.alberta-tr.ca/media/91513/codeofethics11may2021.pdf

Bourque, T., & Horney, B. (2016). Principles of veterinary medical ethics of the CVMA . Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. https://www.canadianveterinarians.net/about-cvma/principles-of-veterinary-medical-ethics-of-the-cvma/

Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). (2016). Principles of veterinary medical ethics of the CVMA . https://www.canadianveterinarians.net/media/o5qjghc0/principles-of-veterinary-medical-ethics-of-the-cvma.pdf

Child and Youth Care Association of Alberta (CYCAA). (2008). Code of ethics . https://www.cycaa.com/about-us/code-of-ethics

College of Alberta Dental Assistants (CADA). (2019). Code of ethics . http://abrda.ca/protecting-the-public/regulations-and-standards/code-of-ethics/

Cyr, C., Helgason, E., Appleton, K., & Yunick, A. (2021). Code of ethics: A guide for ethical and moral decision-making for recreation therapists . Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association. https://www.alberta-tr.ca/media/91513/codeofethics11may2021.pdf

Ehrlich, T. (Ed.). (2000). Civic responsibility and higher education . Oryx Press.

Government of Alberta. (2023). Code of conduct and ethics for the Alberta Public Service . https://www.alberta.ca/code-of-conduct-and-ethics-for-the-alberta-public-service.aspx

Graduate Management Admission Council. (2017). Corporate recruiters survey report 2017 .  https://www.mba.com/-/media/files/gmac/research/employment-outlook/2017-gmac-corporate-recruiters-web-release.pdf?la=en

Gray, K. (2022, November 15). As their focus on GPA fades, employers seek key skills on college grads’ resumes . National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/candidate-selection/as-their-focus-on-gpa-fades-employers-seek-key-skills-on-college-grads-resumes/

Guffey, M. (2008).  Essentials of business communication (7th ed.). Thomson/Wadsworth.

Haas, M., & Mortensen, M. (2016, June). The secrets of great teamwork . Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork

Jotform. (2021, December 8). How technology has changed workplace communication . https://www.jotform.com/blog/technology-and-workplace-communication/

O’Rourke, J., & Yarbrough, B. (2008). Leading groups and teams . South-Western Cengage Learning.

Pearson, J., & Nelson, P. (2000). An introduction to human communication: Understanding and sharing . McGraw-Hill.

Rogers, E., & Steinfatt, T. (1999). I ntercultural communication . Waveland Press.

Therapy Assistant Association of Alberta (ThAAA). (2012). Code of ethics . http://thaaa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ThAAA_Code-of-Ethics.pdf

Zabava Ford, W. S., & Wolvin, A. D. (1993). The differential impact of a basic communication course on perceived communication competencies in class, work, and social contexts. Communication Education, 42 (3), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/0363452930937892

Image Credits (images are listed in order of appearance)

Figure 6. Graduation by Hippo px  by U3167879, CC BY-SA 4.0

Protest-sofia-incinerator  by 008all, CC BY-SA 4.0

Group of students in front of the DARM  by Violetova , CC BY-SA 4.0

Meaning of ETHICS101  by Pokemon1244, CC BY-SA 4.0

Teamwork Skills Training Workplace Illustration  by Digits.co.uk Images , CC BY 2.0

Introduction to Communications Copyright © 2023 by NorQuest College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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What is effective communication?

Effective communication skill 1: become an engaged listener, skill 2: pay attention to nonverbal signals, skill 3: keep stress in check, skill 4: assert yourself, effective communication.

Want to communicate better? These tips will help you avoid misunderstandings, grasp the real meaning of what’s being communicated, and greatly improve your work and personal relationships.

Effective communication is about more than just exchanging information. It’s about understanding the emotion and intentions behind the information. As well as being able to clearly convey a message, you need to also listen in a way that gains the full meaning of what’s being said and makes the other person feel heard and understood.

Effective communication sounds like it should be instinctive. But all too often, when we try to communicate with others something goes astray. We say one thing, the other person hears something else, and misunderstandings, frustration, and conflicts ensue. This can cause problems in your home, school, and work relationships.

For many of us, communicating more clearly and effectively requires learning some important skills. Whether you’re trying to improve communication with your spouse, kids, boss, or coworkers, learning these skills can deepen your connections to others, build greater trust and respect, and improve teamwork, problem solving, and your overall social and emotional health.

What’s stopping you from communicating effectively?

Common barriers to effective communication include:

Stress and out-of-control emotion.  When you’re stressed or emotionally overwhelmed, you’re more likely to misread other people, send confusing or off-putting nonverbal signals, and lapse into unhealthy knee-jerk patterns of behavior. To avoid conflict and misunderstandings, you can learn how to quickly calm down before continuing a conversation.

Lack of focus.  You can’t communicate effectively when you’re multitasking. If you’re checking your phone , planning what you’re going to say next, or daydreaming, you’re almost certain to miss nonverbal cues in the conversation. To communicate effectively, you need to avoid distractions and stay focused.

Inconsistent body language.  Nonverbal communication should reinforce what is being said, not contradict it. If you say one thing, but your body language says something else, your listener will likely feel that you’re being dishonest. For example, you can’t say “yes” while shaking your head no.

[Read: Nonverbal Communication and Body Language]

Negative body language.  If you disagree with or dislike what’s being said, you might use negative body language to rebuff the other person’s message, such as crossing your arms, avoiding eye contact, or tapping your feet. You don’t have to agree with, or even like what’s being said, but to communicate effectively and not put the other person on the defensive, it’s important to avoid sending negative signals.

When communicating with others, we often focus on what we should say. However, effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to convey.

There’s a big difference between engaged listening and simply hearing. When you really listen—when you’re engaged with what’s being said—you’ll hear the subtle intonations in someone’s voice that tell you how that person is feeling and the emotions they’re trying to communicate. When you’re an engaged listener, not only will you better understand the other person, you’ll also make that person feel heard and understood, which can help build a stronger, deeper connection between you.

By communicating in this way, you’ll also experience a process that  lowers stress and supports physical and emotional well-being. If the person you’re talking to is calm, for example, listening in an engaged way will help to calm you, too. Similarly, if the person is agitated, you can help calm them by listening in an attentive way and making the person feel understood.

If your goal is to fully understand and connect with the other person, listening in an engaged way will often come naturally. If it doesn’t, try the following tips. The more you practice them, the more satisfying and rewarding your interactions with others will become.

Tips for becoming an engaged listener

Focus fully on the speaker.  You can’t listen in an engaged way if you’re  constantly checking your phone or thinking about something else. You need to stay focused on the moment-to-moment experience in order to pick up the subtle nuances and important nonverbal cues in a conversation. If you find it hard to concentrate on some speakers, try repeating their words over in your head—it’ll reinforce their message and help you stay focused.

Favor your right ear.  As strange as it sounds, the left side of the brain contains the primary processing centers for both speech comprehension and emotions. Since the left side of the brain is connected to the right side of the body, favoring your right ear can help you better detect the emotional nuances of what someone is saying.

Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns.  By saying something like, “If you think that’s bad, let me tell you what happened to me.” Listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. You can’t concentrate on what someone’s saying if you’re forming what you’re going to say next. Often, the speaker can read your facial expressions and know that your mind’s elsewhere.

Show your interest in what’s being said.  Nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting. Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like “yes” or “uh huh.”

Try to set aside judgment.  In order to communicate effectively with someone, you don’t have to like them or agree with their ideas, values, or opinions. However, you do need to set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand them. The most difficult communication, when successfully executed, can often lead to an unlikely connection with someone.

[Read: Improving Emotional Intelligence (EQ)]

Provide feedback. If there seems to be a disconnect, reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. “What I’m hearing is,” or “Sounds like you are saying,” are great ways to reflect back. Don’t simply repeat what the speaker has said verbatim, though—you’ll sound insincere or unintelligent. Instead, express what the speaker’s words mean to you. Ask questions to clarify certain points: “What do you mean when you say…” or “Is this what you mean?”

Hear the emotion behind the words . It’s the higher frequencies of human speech that impart emotion. You can become more attuned to these frequencies—and thus better able to understand what others are really saying—by exercising the tiny muscles of your middle ear (the smallest in the body). You can do this by singing, playing a wind instrument, or listening to certain types of high-frequency music (a Mozart symphony or violin concerto, for example, rather than low-frequency rock, pop, or hip-hop).

The way you look, listen, move, and react to another person tells them more about how you’re feeling than words alone ever can. Nonverbal communication, or body language, includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing.

Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work.

• You can enhance effective communication by using open body language—arms uncrossed, standing with an open stance or sitting on the edge of your seat, and maintaining eye contact with the person you’re talking to.
• You can also use body language to emphasize or enhance your verbal message—patting a friend on the back while complimenting him on his success, for example, or pounding your fists to underline your message.

Improve how you  read nonverbal communication

Be aware of individual differences. People from different countries and cultures tend to use different nonverbal communication gestures, so it’s important to take age, culture, religion, gender, and emotional state into account when reading body language signals. An American teen, a grieving widow, and an Asian businessman, for example, are likely to use nonverbal signals differently.

Look at nonverbal communication signals as a group. Don’t read too much into a single gesture or nonverbal cue. Consider all of the nonverbal signals you receive, from eye contact to tone of voice to body language. Anyone can slip up occasionally and let eye contact go, for example, or briefly cross their arms without meaning to. Consider the signals as a whole to get a better “read” on a person.

Improve how you  deliver nonverbal communication

Use nonverbal signals that match up with your words rather than contradict them. If you say one thing, but your body language says something else, your listener will feel confused or suspect that you’re being dishonest. For example, sitting with your arms crossed and shaking your head doesn’t match words telling the other person that you agree with what they’re saying.

Adjust your nonverbal signals according to the context. The tone of your voice, for example, should be different when you’re addressing a child than when you’re addressing a group of adults. Similarly, take into account the emotional state and cultural background of the person you’re interacting with.

Avoid negative body language. Instead, use body language to convey positive feelings, even when you’re not actually experiencing them. If you’re nervous about a situation—a job interview, important presentation, or first date, for example—you can use positive body language to signal confidence, even though you’re not feeling it. Instead of tentatively entering a room with your head down, eyes averted, and sliding into a chair, try standing tall with your shoulders back, smiling and maintaining eye contact, and delivering a firm handshake. It will make you feel more self-confident and help to put the other person at ease.

How many times have you felt stressed during a disagreement with your spouse, kids, boss, friends, or coworkers and then said or done something you later regretted? If you can quickly relieve stress and return to a calm state, you’ll not only avoid such regrets, but in many cases you’ll also help to calm the other person as well. It’s only when you’re in a calm, relaxed state that you’ll be able to know whether the situation requires a response, or whether the other person’s signals indicate it would be better to remain silent.

In situations such as a job interview, business presentation, high-pressure meeting, or introduction to a loved one’s family, for example, it’s important to manage your emotions, think on your feet, and effectively communicate under pressure.

Communicate effectively by staying calm under pressure

Use stalling tactics to give yourself time to think. Ask for a question to be repeated or for clarification of a statement before you respond.

Pause to collect your thoughts. Silence isn’t necessarily a bad thing—pausing can make you seem more in control than rushing your response.

Make one point and provide an example or supporting piece of information. If your response is too long or you waffle about a number of points, you risk losing the listener’s interest. Follow one point with an example and then gauge the listener’s reaction to tell if you should make a second point.

Deliver your words clearly. In many cases, how you say something can be as important as what you say. Speak clearly, maintain an even tone, and make eye contact. Keep your body language relaxed and open.

Wrap up with a summary and then stop. Summarize your response and then stop talking, even if it leaves a silence in the room. You don’t have to fill the silence by continuing to talk.

Quick stress relief for effective communication

When a conversation starts to get heated, you need something quick and immediate to bring down the emotional intensity. By learning to quickly reduce stress in the moment, you can safely take stock of any strong emotions you’re experiencing, regulate your feelings, and behave appropriately.

Recognize when you’re becoming stressed. Your body will let you know if you’re stressed as you communicate. Are your muscles or stomach tight? Are your hands clenched? Is your breath shallow? Are you “forgetting” to breathe?

Take a moment to calm down before deciding to continue a conversation or postpone it.

Bring your senses to the rescue. The best way to rapidly and reliably relieve stress is through the senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell—or movement. For example, you could pop a peppermint in your mouth, squeeze a stress ball in your pocket, take a few deep breaths, clench and relax your muscles, or simply recall a soothing, sensory-rich image. Each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find a coping mechanism that is soothing to you.

[Read: Quick Stress Relief]

Look for humor in the situation. When used appropriately, humor is a great way to relieve stress when communicating . When you or those around you start taking things too seriously, find a way to lighten the mood by sharing a joke or an amusing story.

Be willing to compromise. Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you’ll be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces the stress levels for everyone concerned. If you realize that the other person cares much more about an issue than you do, compromise may be easier for you and a good investment for the future of the relationship.

Agree to disagree, if necessary, and take time away from the situation so everyone can calm down. Go for a stroll outside if possible, or spend a few minutes meditating. Physical movement or finding a quiet place to regain your balance can quickly reduce stress.

Find your space for healing and growth

Regain is an online couples counseling service. Whether you’re facing problems with communication, intimacy, or trust, Regain’s licensed, accredited therapists can help you improve your relationship.

Direct, assertive expression makes for clear communication and can help boost your self-esteem and decision-making skills. Being assertive means expressing your thoughts, feelings, and needs in an open and honest way, while standing up for yourself and respecting others. It does NOT mean being hostile, aggressive, or demanding. Effective communication is always about understanding the other person, not about winning an argument or forcing your opinions on others.

To improve your assertiveness

Value yourself and your options. They are as important as anyone else’s.

Know your needs and wants. Learn to express them without infringing on the rights of others.

Express negative thoughts in a positive way. It’s  okay to be angry , but you must remain respectful as well.

Receive feedback positively. Accept compliments graciously, learn from your mistakes, ask for help when needed.

Learn to say “no.” Know your limits and don’t let others take advantage of you. Look for alternatives so everyone feels good about the outcome.

Developing assertive communication techniques

Empathetic assertion conveys sensitivity to the other person. First, recognize the other person’s situation or feelings, then state your needs or opinion. “I know you’ve been very busy at work, but I want you to make time for us as well.”

Escalating assertion can be employed when your first attempts are not successful. You become increasingly firm as time progresses, which may include outlining consequences if your needs are not met. For example, “If you don’t abide by the contract, I’ll be forced to pursue legal action.”

Practice assertiveness in lower risk situations to help build up your confidence. Or ask friends or family if you can practice assertiveness techniques on them first.

More Information

• Effective Communication: Improving Your Social Skills - Communicate more effectively, improve your conversation skills, and become more assertive. (AnxietyCanada)
• Core Listening Skills - How to be a better listener. (SucceedSocially.com)
• Effective Communication - How to communicate in groups using nonverbal communication and active listening techniques. (University of Maine)
• Some Common Communication Mistakes - And how to avoid them. (SucceedSocially.com)
• 3aPPa3 – When cognitive demand increases, does the right ear have an advantage? – Danielle Sacchinell | Acoustics.org . (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from Link
• How to Behave More Assertively . (n.d.). 10. Weger, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). The Relative Effectiveness of Active Listening in Initial Interactions.  International Journal of Listening , 28(1), 13–31. Link

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• Essay On Importance Of Communication

Importance of Communication Essay

500+ words importance of communication essay.

For every human being, communication is one of the essential parts of our lives. People build relationships in their personal and professional lives based on communication. Effective communication works as a foundation for respect and trust to grow. It helps in better understanding a person and the context of the conversation. People always believe that their way of communication is better than others. To communicate effectively, individuals should understand the motion behind the said information. We know that communication is effortless, but miscommunication between two or more individuals sometimes leads to conflicts and distress. Building relationships at home, work, and social affairs will be easier if you know the right way to communicate effectively. It is required to have better communication skills such as non-verbal communication, listening and managing stress can improve the relationship between individuals.

Meaning of Communication

Communication is essential for all of us, whether humans or animals. Communication is a part of written and spoken language, and altogether it completes the communication process. Both use different languages to communicate because it’s hard to survive in this world without communication.

Good communication skills are all about exchanging ideas and thoughts to convey information. It is a two-way conversation that includes vocalisation as well as a gesture. One of the crucial purposes of communication is to express ideas, needs or thoughts, and one’s beliefs with clarity for a mutually accepted solution.

Communication skills cannot be underestimated. Before languages were invented, people communicated with their hand gestures, body language, etc. We all require better communication skills at every step of our life. Personal and professional life will get hampered if you lack practical communication.

Importance of Effective Communication

People understand the importance of communication, but sometimes they cannot communicate through communication. It happens due to a lack of better communication skills. Below, we have discussed a few ways to communicate effectively.

• Interruption: It becomes very annoying when someone disrupts you while talking. It looks pretty unethical to disrupt someone while talking constantly, and the conversation can take a different turn. So, while talking, let the other person complete their talk before you start talking.
• Listen patiently: Listen patiently when someone tries to make a healthy conversation. It is one of the ways to do effective communication, as it gives a clear understanding of what the person is trying to say.
• View your body language: Body language speaks about your personality. Some people make uncomfortable gestures through their body language. So, you should keep your body language friendly and warm rather than keeping it arrogant.
• Do not go over your point: Communication is all about expressing thoughts so that the other person can understand. It is not that you are trying to prove something correct and the other person incorrect. Some people try to win the conservation, which leads to struggles and arguments.
• Watch your words: Before telling someone something, make sure you know what you are saying. We often say things that we should not do out of anger or anxiety. Remember, once spoken, words can not be withdrawn. Thus, it is suggested that you do not say something that you can regret later.
• Practice: If there is a professional meeting where you need to communicate about your product or work, it is recommended to practise already. Practise in front of the mirror or with a friend only. Choose how your conversation will begin, all the points you cover, and how you will end it.

As many people may feel comfortable communicating, communication is an art developed through practice and evaluation; every good communicator passes through a process to learn communication and practice skills, review themselves, and decrease where they can be.

Communication is essential to share our thoughts and feelings to live a happy life. Better communication makes us feel better about everything surrounding us and makes us suffer less. So, it is necessary to learn the art of communication to put across one point well.

Therefore, communication is a vital aspect of our existence. Effective communication can be achieved by being mindful of different elements of communication. Using appropriate communication in appropriate settings is essential for effective communication.

From our BYJU’S website, students can also access CBSE Essays related to different topics. It will help students to get good marks in their exams.

Frequently asked Questions on the Importance of communication Essay

How important is communication.

Communication of ideas, and thoughts is an important skill to be acquired. Conveying things in an effective manner is necessary for both our personal and professional lives.

What are types of communication?

There are 4 main types of communication are verbal, non verbal, visual and written forms of communication.

What are the factors that act as a barrier for communication?

Language is obviously the biggest barrier for communication between peoples of the world. Then comes the physical barrier. Geographical separation hinders communication. There are other factors like the gender barrier, cultural differences that prevail in the society. Last but not the least, emotional barriers too hinder proper understanding between persons involved in communication.

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Chapter 1: The Speech Communication Process

The Speech Communication Process

• Listener(s)

Interference

As you might imagine, the speaker is the crucial first element within the speech communication process. Without a speaker, there is no process.  The  speaker  is simply the person who is delivering, or presenting, the speech.  A speaker might be someone who is training employees in your workplace. Your professor is another example of a public speaker as s/he gives a lecture. Even a stand-up comedian can be considered a public speaker. After all, each of these people is presenting an oral message to an audience in a public setting. Most speakers, however, would agree that the listener is one of the primary reasons that they speak.

The listener is just as important as the speaker; neither one is effective without the other.  The  listener  is the person or persons who have assembled to hear the oral message.  Some texts might even call several listeners an “audience. ” The listener generally forms an opinion as to the effectiveness of the speaker and the validity of the speaker’s message based on what they see and hear during the presentation. The listener’s job sometimes includes critiquing, or evaluating, the speaker’s style and message. You might be asked to critique your classmates as they speak or to complete an evaluation of a public speaker in another setting. That makes the job of the listener extremely important. Providing constructive feedback to speakers often helps the speaker improve her/his speech tremendously.

Another crucial element in the speech process is the message.  The  message  is what the speaker is discussing or the ideas that s/he is presenting to you as s/he covers a particular topic.  The important chapter concepts presented by your professor become the message during a lecture. The commands and steps you need to use, the new software at work, are the message of the trainer as s/he presents the information to your department. The message might be lengthy, such as the President’s State of the Union address, or fairly brief, as in a five-minute presentation given in class.

The  channel  is the means by which the message is sent or transmitted.  Different channels are used to deliver the message, depending on the communication type or context. For instance, in mass communication, the channel utilized might be a television or radio broadcast. The use of a cell phone is an example of a channel that you might use to send a friend a message in interpersonal communication. However, the channel typically used within public speaking is the speaker’s voice, or more specifically, the sound waves used to carry the voice to those listening. You could watch a prerecorded speech or one accessible on YouTube, and you might now say the channel is the television or your computer. This is partially true. However, the speech would still have no value if the speaker’s voice was not present, so in reality, the channel is now a combination of the two -the speaker’s voice broadcast through an electronic source.

The context is a bit more complicated than the other elements we have discussed so far. The context is more than one specific component. For example, when you give a speech in your classroom, the classroom, or  the physical location of your speech, is part of the context  . That’s probably the easiest part of context to grasp.

But you should also consider that the  people in your audience expect you to behave in a certain manner, depending on the physical location or the occasion of the presentation  . If you gave a toast at a wedding, the audience wouldn’t be surprised if you told a funny story about the couple or used informal gestures such as a high-five or a slap on the groom’s back. That would be acceptable within the expectations of your audience, given the occasion. However, what if the reason for your speech was the presentation of a eulogy at a loved one’s funeral? Would the audience still find a high-five or humor as acceptable in that setting? Probably not. So the expectations of your audience must be factored into context as well.

The cultural rules -often unwritten and sometimes never formally communicated to us -are also a part of the context. Depending on your culture, you would probably agree that there are some “rules ” typically adhered to by those attending a funeral. In some cultures, mourners wear dark colors and are somber and quiet. In other cultures, grieving out loud or beating one’s chest to show extreme grief is traditional. Therefore,  the rules from our culture  -no matter what they are -play a part in the context as well.

Every speaker hopes that her/his speech is clearly understood by the audience. However, there are times when some obstacle gets in the way of the message and interferes with the listener’s ability to hear what’s being said.  This is  interference  , or you might have heard it referred to as “noise. ”  Every speaker must prepare and present with the assumption that interference is likely to be present in the speaking environment.

Interference can be mental, physical, or physiological.  Mental interference  occurs when the listener is not fully focused on what s/he is hearing due to her/his own thoughts.  If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming in class during a lecture, you’re experiencing mental interference. Your own thoughts are getting in the way of the message.

A second form of interference is  physical interference  . This is noise in the literal sense -someone coughing behind you during a speech or the sound of a mower outside the classroom window. You may be unable to hear the speaker because of the surrounding environmental noises.

The last form of interference is  physiological  . This type of interference occurs when your body is responsible for the blocked signals. A deaf person, for example, has the truest form of physiological interference; s/he may have varying degrees of difficulty hearing the message. If you’ve ever been in a room that was too cold or too hot and found yourself not paying attention, you’re experiencing physiological interference. Your bodily discomfort distracts from what is happening around you.

The final component within the speech process is feedback. While some might assume that the speaker is the only one who sends a message during a speech, the reality is that the  listeners in the audience are sending a message of their own, called  feedback  .  Often this is how the speaker knows if s/he is sending an effective message. Occasionally the feedback from listeners comes in verbal form – questions from the audience or an angry response from a listener about a key point presented. However, in general, feedback during a presentation is typically non-verbal -a student nodding her/his head in agreement or a confused look from an audience member. An observant speaker will scan the audience for these forms of feedback, but keep in mind that non-verbal feedback is often more difficult to spot and to decipher. For example, is a yawn a sign of boredom, or is it simply a tired audience member?

Generally, all of the above elements are present during a speech. However, you might wonder what the process would look like if we used a diagram to illustrate it. Initially, some students think of public speaking as a linear process -the speaker sending a message to the listener -a simple, straight line. But if you’ll think about the components we’ve just covered, you begin to see that a straight line cannot adequately represent the process, when we add listener feedback into the process. The listener is sending her/his own message back to the speaker, so perhaps the process might better be represented as circular. Add in some interference and place the example in context, and you have a more complete idea of the speech process.

Fundamentals of Public Speaking Copyright © by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Speech On Communication [1,2,3 Minutes]

Communication is an important aspect of human life. It helps us convey our thoughts and feelings to others. However, communication can solve giant issues, sometimes wrong communication can lead you many controversies.

In this article, we are sharing some examples of “ speech on communication ” of different word lengths and delivery duration. These are written in easy-to-understand and simple English language.

Speech On Communication for 1 Minute

Good morning and welcome all of you gathered here. I am here to present a speech on communication.

Communication has the purpose of transferring thoughts, ideas, and information to others. But it is very important to convey the information in the correct form otherwise people interpret it the wrong way.

Hence, communication is not only firing loads of words towards others but we need to make quality conversations with the help of enhanced communication skills. First of all, good communication skills involve the choice of words, gestures, silence, expressions etc.

Apart from that, we need to understand the other person’s perspective by listening to him carefully. This will give us an idea of how to communicate with a specific person.

Furthermore, you can choose your words wisely to create a positive influence on people. For example: if you drive a person to wait for you, you can say to him “ thank you for sparing me your valuable time ” instead of saying “ sorry, I got late for this reason “.

At last, I want to say; From the first ray of the sun to the last minute of the day, we communicate with a number of people. Good communication skills can help us grow in each aspect of life. So, we should keep improving our communication skills. Thank you!

2-Minute Speech On Communication

Welcome honourable principal, respected teacher, loved parents and dear friends. Today, we are gathered here for this special occasion of… I am here to speak a few words about communication skills.

We use a number of tools to make our life easy. One of these tools is communication. Fundamentally, the purpose of communication is to convey our message to other people. But if the other person interprets your words in the wrong way, the purpose of communication will not get satisfied.

It means we need to use this tool very carefully otherwise it can create problems for us rather than solving one. So, there is a need to improve our communication skills in order to convey the correct message. First of all, we should understand that communication is an art more than a science.

Once we master the art of communication, we can win the hearts of people and convince them. Now, communication can help you progress in every sphere of life be it your personal life or your professional life. This is the reason that most companies employ people with good communication skills.

Most importantly, good communication skills do not focus only on the choices of words, there are many other elements that make a conversation healthy and sound good. These elements involve gestures, signs, symbols, pauses, silence, body language and expressions.

One can easily improve communication skills through various means such as by enrolling in a course, following good communicators, and reading books on good communication skills. But this is not enough, you need to practice once you understand the basics of good communication.

To sum it up, scaling up communication skills is the need for each one of us so that we can build good relationships with others. Thank you!

3 Minute Speech On The Importance Of Communication

First of all, good morning to the honourable principal, respected teachers and loving friends and all of you present here today. In your special presence, I would like to say a few words about communication and its importance.

We live in two different worlds. One is the internal world of desires, thoughts, feelings, fear and emotions etc. The second is the external world we are surrounded with. In order to bridge the gap between the internal and external worlds, we need a device. This device is called “communication”.

Human life has always been and is full of communication. In earlier times when no language was developed, Humans conversed with each other using hand gestures, signs and expressions. Today, we have various means of communication such as social media , instant messaging, video calls, phone calls, emails etc.

Whether you are a student or a working professional, you need to communicate with people for a number of reasons. Communication helps us convey our thoughts and feelings to others. However, communication can solve giant issues, sometimes wrong communication can lead you many controversies.

Hence, it is essential for everyone to communicate well because people understand each other with the help of communication. On the one hand, healthy communication can help you build good relationships. On the other hand, poor communication can destroy healthy relationships.

First of all, one needs to understand the basics of communication in order to develop good communication skills. Communication involves many elements one needs to pay attention to. These elements involve gestures, signs, symbols, pauses, silence, body language and expressions.

Apart from this, you can choose your words wisely to create a positive influence on people. For example: if you drive a person to wait for you, you can say to him “ thank you for sparing me your valuable time ” instead of saying “ sorry, I got late for this reason “.

A person with good communication skills is respected and loved by all. This is because he knows how to win people’s hearts and convince them. This quality can lead you to the path of progress in all walks of life be it personal or professional.

Most notably, good communication skills open many doors for employment as companies prefer hiring people with good communication skills. So, everyone should start improving his communication skills. This will not only make a splash on your personality, but also you get recognition in society.

To sum it up, communication skills play a crucial role in our daily lives. We must strive to improve them continuously. This is all I wanted to share with you. Thank you!

Other Speeches

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Why are speech, language and communication so important?

February 1, 2019

Everyone talks about the importance of communication but what does it actually consist of and why is it so important? Each day we use communication, speech and language to connect with people and the world around us. In fact, communication is a basic right and every individual should reach their full communicative potential in terms of speech and language.

Let’s take a closer look at what these terms actually mean. Communication is a two-way process between participants where they exchange information, ideas, feelings, and create and share meaning. This may be done through different means such as spoken or written language, gestures or visual aids. Language is a formal system of words and symbols through which we communicate. We might do this through speaking, listening, reading, writing and viewing. Due to the nature of language, users have the ability to create and share infinite meanings. Speech   is made up of the sounds within a language, and it is one of the main ways in which we communicate with people.

Language can be classified as receptive or expressive. Receptive language is how we understand language, which is usually through listening or reading, and expressive language is how we use language, which is usually through speaking and writing. Communication also includes a range of other skills such as social communication, sentence structure, word meaning and vocabulary, grammar and the production of speech sounds.

Now, whilst this may sound overwhelming and confusing, most of us unconsciously use these skills across the day.  Think about a simple activity, such as ordering a snack from the canteen or café. Firstly, you use receptive language skills to read and view the menu and make a choice. You then use expressive language and speech to place your order. You might also use non-verbal communication by pointing to the item or the menu. You then use receptive language to understand the response, such as the price or wait time. Additional communication skills are layered into this interaction such as eye contact, turn taking and social communication, such as greetings and manners. So, to complete what looks like a simple action in a small part of your day, you are using a multitude of communication skills, language and speech skills!

It is amazing to think that we start to develop our speech, language and communication skills from birth. Children usually develop their basic foundation skills of speech, language and communication in their first 5 years, and continue to develop and refine their skills right up until adult years, as they learn to use speech and language for literacy, reading and increasingly complex and formal purposes.

When children start school, they are expected to have developed the speech, language and communication foundations needed to participate in learning in the classroom and the playground. The Australian Curriculum has a strong focus on communication in terms of language, literacy and literature, with teaching and learning having a focus on oral language. This can impact children who might have difficulties or a delay with their speech, language and communication, as they may have difficulty understanding and sharing information, creating meaning, communicating requests, interacting and playing with others, developing literacy and numeracy skills and participating in learning activities.  In fact, it is estimated that approximately 24% of children have speech, language or communication difficulties at school entry.

Now this can sound concerning, but in reality, some children just need a little support from a speech and language pathologist to develop their skills. Speech and language pathologists study, assess and treat communication difficulties, including those relating to speaking, listening, understanding and using language, reading, writing, social skills, stuttering and using voice. Speech pathologists work with individuals of all ages but early intervention has been proven to be most effective and meaningful for a child, to help them reach their milestones and continue with their learning. In most cases, a child does not ‘outgrow’ their difficulties and they do not ‘go away’ without intervention.

Sometimes parents and teachers can find it difficult to identify speech, language and communication difficulties in a child, as it may often be masked by other skills. Often, they may notice other changes such as frustration, avoidance or refusal to complete homework, participate in activities or talking situations. It is important to remember that they may have speech, language and communication difficulties for a range of different reasons, and it is not a cause of parenting or a child being lazy.

All children develop at different rates but most children learn skills within an age range. You can help your child’s speech and language development by:

• Talking, reading and playing together
• Listening and responding to what they say
• Commenting about your actions and your child’s actions
• Using your home/primary language as well as English
• Using new and different words
• Starting to use longer sentences as they get older
• Encouraging your child to play with other kids

Speech Pathologists are here to work together with families and teachers to make learning fun! If you’re unsure if your child has speech, language and communication needs or difficulties, we welcome you to get in touch with us here at Beam Health to book in a consultation with our experienced Speech Pathologist .

Delna Pryde

Speech Pathologist

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1993). Definitions of communication disorders and variations [Relevant Paper]. Available from www.asha.org/policy .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Early identification of speech, language, and hearing disorders. Available from: www.asha.org  

Speech Pathology Australia. (2017). Speech pathology in schools. Available from  www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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The Power of Communication

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3.6: The Speech Communication Process

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Most who study the speech communication process agree that there are several critical components present in nearly every speech. We have chosen in this text to label these components using the following terms:

• Listener(s)

Interference

As you might imagine, the speaker is the crucial first element within the speech communication process. Without a speaker, there is no process.  The  speaker  is simply the person who is delivering, or presenting, the speech.  A speaker might be someone who is training employees in your workplace. Your professor is another example of a public speaker as s/he gives a lecture. Even a stand-up comedian can be considered a public speaker. After all, each of these people is presenting an oral message to an audience in a public setting. Most speakers, however, would agree that the listener is one of the primary reasons that they speak.

The listener is just as important as the speaker; neither one is effective without the other.  The  listener  is the person or persons who have assembled to hear the oral message.  Some texts might even call several listeners an “audience. ” The listener generally forms an opinion as to the effectiveness of the speaker and the validity of the speaker’s message based on what they see and hear during the presentation. The listener’s job sometimes includes critiquing, or evaluating, the speaker’s style and message. You might be asked to critique your classmates as they speak or to complete an evaluation of a public speaker in another setting. That makes the job of the listener extremely important. Providing constructive feedback to speakers often helps the speaker improve her/his speech tremendously.

Another crucial element in the speech process is the message.  The  message  is what the speaker is discussing or the ideas that s/he is presenting to you as s/he covers a particular topic.  The important chapter concepts presented by your professor become the message during a lecture. The commands and steps you need to use, the new software at work, are the message of the trainer as s/he presents the information to your department. The message might be lengthy, such as the President’s State of the Union address, or fairly brief, as in a five-minute presentation given in class.

The  channel  is the means by which the message is sent or transmitted.  Different channels are used to deliver the message, depending on the communication type or context. For instance, in mass communication, the channel utilized might be a television or radio broadcast. The use of a cell phone is an example of a channel that you might use to send a friend a message in interpersonal communication. However, the channel typically used within public speaking is the speaker’s voice, or more specifically, the sound waves used to carry the voice to those listening. You could watch a prerecorded speech or one accessible on YouTube, and you might now say the channel is the television or your computer. This is partially true. However, the speech would still have no value if the speaker’s voice was not present, so in reality, the channel is now a combination of the two -the speaker’s voice broadcast through an electronic source.

The context is a bit more complicated than the other elements we have discussed so far. The context is more than one specific component. For example, when you give a speech in your classroom, the classroom, or  the physical location of your speech, is part of the context  . That’s probably the easiest part of context to grasp.

But you should also consider that the  people in your audience expect you to behave in a certain manner, depending on the physical location or the occasion of the presentation  . If you gave a toast at a wedding, the audience wouldn’t be surprised if you told a funny story about the couple or used informal gestures such as a high-five or a slap on the groom’s back. That would be acceptable within the expectations of your audience, given the occasion. However, what if the reason for your speech was the presentation of a eulogy at a loved one’s funeral? Would the audience still find a high-five or humor as acceptable in that setting? Probably not. So the expectations of your audience must be factored into context as well.

The cultural rules -often unwritten and sometimes never formally communicated to us -are also a part of the context. Depending on your culture, you would probably agree that there are some “rules ” typically adhered to by those attending a funeral. In some cultures, mourners wear dark colors and are somber and quiet. In other cultures, grieving out loud or beating one’s chest to show extreme grief is traditional. Therefore,  the rules from our culture  -no matter what they are -play a part in the context as well.

Every speaker hopes that her/his speech is clearly understood by the audience. However, there are times when some obstacle gets in the way of the message and interferes with the listener’s ability to hear what’s being said.  This is  interference  , or you might have heard it referred to as “noise. ”  Every speaker must prepare and present with the assumption that interference is likely to be present in the speaking environment.

Interference can be mental, physical, or physiological.  Mental interference  occurs when the listener is not fully focused on what s/he is hearing due to her/his own thoughts.  If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming in class during a lecture, you’re experiencing mental interference. Your own thoughts are getting in the way of the message.

A second form of interference is  physical interference  . This is noise in the literal sense -someone coughing behind you during a speech or the sound of a mower outside the classroom window. You may be unable to hear the speaker because of the surrounding environmental noises.

The last form of interference is  physiological  . This type of interference occurs when your body is responsible for the blocked signals. A deaf person, for example, has the truest form of physiological interference; s/he may have varying degrees of difficulty hearing the message. If you’ve ever been in a room that was too cold or too hot and found yourself not paying attention, you’re experiencing physiological interference. Your bodily discomfort distracts from what is happening around you.

The final component within the speech process is feedback. While some might assume that the speaker is the only one who sends a message during a speech, the reality is that the  listeners in the audience are sending a message of their own, called  feedback  .  Often this is how the speaker knows if s/he is sending an effective message. Occasionally the feedback from listeners comes in verbal form – questions from the audience or an angry response from a listener about a key point presented. However, in general, feedback during a presentation is typically non-verbal -a student nodding her/his head in agreement or a confused look from an audience member. An observant speaker will scan the audience for these forms of feedback, but keep in mind that non-verbal feedback is often more difficult to spot and to decipher. For example, is a yawn a sign of boredom, or is it simply a tired audience member?

Generally, all of the above elements are present during a speech. However, you might wonder what the process would look like if we used a diagram to illustrate it. Initially, some students think of public speaking as a linear process -the speaker sending a message to the listener -a simple, straight line. But if you’ll think about the components we’ve just covered, you begin to see that a straight line cannot adequately represent the process, when we add listener feedback into the process. The listener is sending her/his own message back to the speaker, so perhaps the process might better be represented as circular. Add in some interference and place the example in context, and you have a more complete idea of the speech process.

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Speeches about Communication [1,2,3,5 Minutes]

1 minute speech about communication.

Communication is the process of sharing information and ideas between two or more people.

Communication is a process that involves exchanging ideas, thoughts, and feelings. It can be done verbally or non-verbally. The intention of communication is to achieve understanding between two or more people by using a shared language.

This introduction provides an overview of what communication is and how it works.

Communication is one of the most important aspects of our lives. It is a means of understanding and sharing ideas with others.

Although communication can be a difficult task, it is important to know how to communicate effectively in order to achieve your goals.

Knowing how to communicate effectively can help you in many ways such as developing stronger relationships, promoting yourself and your brand, and increasing your chances of success.

Communication is a two-way process that helps in achieving personal and professional goals. It can be used to build trust, foster collaboration, and improve the quality of life.

Communication is a two-way process that helps in achieving personal and professional goals. It can be used to build trust, foster collaboration, and improve the quality of life. It has many advantages such as improved productivity, reduced stress levels, improved relationships with others and increased empathy.

Quotes for Speech about Communication

• “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker
• “Communication is the solvent of all problems and is the foundation for personal development.” – Peter Shepherd
• “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” – James Humes
• “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” – Tony Robbins
• “Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” – Rollo May
• “The two words ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.” – Sydney J. Harris
• “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
• “Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” – Brian Tracy
• “Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.” – Paul J. Meyer
• “The most powerful tool we have as a society is communication.” – Jeremy Piven
• “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” – Jim Rohn
• “Communication is not just words. It’s how those words are said, the facial expressions and body language that accompany them.” – Anonymous
• “Communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.” – Nat Turner
• “Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.” – Yehuda Berg

2 Minutes Speech about Communication

Communication is the process of exchanging information through speech, signs, gestures, writing, or other mediums.

The word communication comes from Latin communi-care, meaning “to share”. Communication can be defined as the passing on of information from one entity to another.

Communication is a process of exchanging information, thoughts, and feelings between humans. It is the way we share our experiences with others and the way we understand each other.

Communication is an important part of human life. It helps us to build relationships with others and it also helps us to understand ourselves better. Communication can be done in many ways – verbal, written, or non-verbal.

Communication is the key to a successful relationship. It is what makes us human and keeps us connected with one another. It is also what helps us to understand, relate and connect with others.

The importance of communication can be seen in many aspects of our life – from the ability to express ourselves, to understanding others, and even achieving success in our careers.

Communication skills are essential for anyone who wants to succeed in their career or personal life.

Communication is the backbone of our society. It helps us to interact with each other and make sure that we are not isolated from the world. It also helps us to understand each other better, which is one of the main advantages of communication.

Communication is a key element in our lives that help us to connect with each other, understand one another, and build relationships. Communication can be used for various purposes like personal or professional interactions.

Sources of communication are all the channels that can be used to communicate. They include various mediums such as print, TV, radio, social media and digital platforms.

Sources of communication are changing with the time and moving towards digital platforms. With the increase in usage of digital platforms like blogs, podcasts and social media channels, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for advertisers to reach out to their target audience.

3 Minutes Speech about Communication

Communication is one of the most important aspects of life. Communication can be defined as a process in which people send and receive messages. It is a way to get information from one person to another person or group of people.

Communication can be done in different ways such as verbal, written, nonverbal, etc. One common form of communication is face-to-face conversation, while other forms are email, text message and phone call.

Communication is a process by which information is transmitted from one person to another. One of the most important aspects of communication is the message.

What is communication?

– Communication can be defined as a process by which information is transmitted from one person to another.

– One of the most important aspects of communication is the message.

Communication is a key factor in human development and it has many benefits. It is the most important tool for personal and business growth.

There are many advantages of communication that we can’t even imagine without it. Communication helps us to build relationships with people, share information, learn from others, create awareness about social issues, etc.

Communication is a key factor in any relationship. It helps to build trust and understanding between people. There are many sources of communication, such as verbal and non-verbal cues.

There are three main types of communication:

1. Verbal Communication – includes spoken, written, or signed language;

2. Non-Verbal Communication – includes gestures and facial expressions;

3. Physical Communication – includes body language

5 Minutes Speech about Communication

Communication is a process of sharing information and ideas from one person to another in order to achieve a goal.

Communication is a process of sharing information and ideas from one person to another in order to achieve a goal. Communication can be through verbal, nonverbal, or written means.

The following are some examples of communication:

– Talking on the phone

– Sending an email

– Writing an article

Communication is a fundamental part of human life. It is essential for our survival and it also helps us to build relationships with other people.

We are increasingly using communication technologies to stay connected with people we love and care about, but we should not forget the importance of communication in our lives.

Communication is a key aspect of everyday life. It helps us to understand and be understood by others. Communication is also important in the workplace, where it helps us to build relationships and reach our goal of creating sales or increasing customer satisfaction.

Communication has many advantages, but the most important one is that it allows people to understand each other better, which in turn leads to more effective collaboration, more productive teamwork and more efficient business processes.

The benefits of communication are numerous for both individuals and organizations:

Sources of communication are the ways through which people communicate. There are many different sources of communication in the world, including text, voice, and pictures.

Text: Text is an essential part of our society and it’s a great way to communicate with each other. It’s also an easy way to share information online that can be easily shared with others in a quick manner.

Voice: Voice is another important source of communication as it allows people to express themselves without having to type out long messages or sentences. Voice is also used when people are not physically close to one another but still want to connect with one another.

Pictures: Pictures are a great source of communication because they allow us to share our emotions without having to type out long messages or sentences.

Examples of sentences that can be used in starting of this speech

Examples of sentences that can be used in closing of this speech, speeches in english.

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• Speech on gender equality
• Speech on poverty
• Speech on Global Warming
• Speech on Environmental Pollution
• Speech on Earth Day
• Speech on Discipline
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Speech, language and communication needs and mental health: the experiences of speech and language therapists and mental health professionals

Annabel hancock.

1 Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London UK

Sarah Northcott

2 Division of Language and Communication Science, City University of London, London UK

Hannah Hobson

3 Department of Psychology, University of York, York UK

Michael Clarke

Associated data.

Data are available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

While the relationship between speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and mental health difficulties has been recognized, speech and language therapists (SLTs), and mental health professionals face challenges in assessing and treating children with these co‐occurring needs. There exists a gap in the evidence base for best practice for professionals working with children and young people (CYP) who experience difficulties in both areas.

To explore the views of SLTs and mental health clinicians about their experiences of working with CYP exhibiting co‐occurring SLCN and mental health difficulties.

Methods & Procedures

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight SLTs and six mental health professionals, including psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, play therapists and counsellors, with experience working with CYP with SLCN. Interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and themes were identified from the data.

Outcomes & Results

Participants felt that SLCN and mental health difficulties frequently co‐occur. Participants described how CYP with SLCN and mental health issues commonly experience difficulties across and between the domains of language and cognition, emotional well‐being and challenging behaviour. Findings suggest that there are organizational limitations in the fields of SLT and mental health that have implications for the efficacy of assessment and treatment of CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. Traditional talking therapies were perceived to be inaccessible and ineffective for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. Interventions blending behaviour and emotion programmes with language and communication interventions were considered potentially beneficial.

Conclusions & Implications

Future research should explore and evaluate current services and service set‐up in SLT and mental health. The findings from this study have important implications for the efficacy of treatments provided to this population suggesting that more research needs to be done into effective diagnosis and interventions for this population.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject.

• Research suggests that CYP with SLCN, such as developmental language disorder (DLD), are likely to experience mental health difficulties including depression, anxiety and poor emotional well‐being. CYP who experience difficulties with SLCN and poor mental health are not well understood and this area remains under‐researched. This has implications for clinician knowledge and therefore the effective diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents experiencing SLCN and mental health difficulties. In addition, little is known about the accessibility of talking therapies to CYP presenting with SLCN and mental health difficulties.

What this paper adds to existing knowledge

• SLCN issues are understood by SLTs and mental health issues are understood by mental health professionals, but where these co‐occur difficulties exist for the diagnostic process, with professionals perceiving that CYP in this category are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Organizational boundaries between SLT and mental health were perceived to contribute to a lack of understanding of SLCN and mental health needs, which has implications for effective diagnosis and treatment. Traditional talking therapies were thought to be inaccessible for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. Interventions used in both SLT and psychotherapy were perceived as clinically useful if combined.

What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?

• This paper highlights implications for the accessibility and efficacy of the assessment and treatment provided to this population and to the organization of services currently treating this group of CYP. A direction for future research would be to undertake service evaluations and intervention‐based studies.

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and mental health is interwoven and highly complex and often poses real problems for speech and language therapists (SLTs) and mental health professionals to understand, diagnose and treat. SLCN is a broad category that covers a wide range of conditions affecting speech, language and communication (Bishop et al., 2017 ). For simplicity and consistency, the term ‘mental health’ or ‘mental health difficulties’ will be used to refer to children and young people (CYP) with social–emotional and mental health needs, anxiety and depression.

The aim of this study was to explore the views of SLTs and mental health clinicians about their experiences of working with CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties and, if identified by participants, to explore issues around language and social communication disorders. We begin by first reviewing the existing evidence on the links between language, communication and mental health.

Language, social communication and mental health

There is extensive evidence that language and communication problems co‐occur with mental health problems, although the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unclear. Poor language skills are common in CYP with emotional–behavioural disorders. A 2014 systematic review reported that four out of five children with emotional–behavioural disorders had at least mild language difficulties that had not been previously identified (Hollo et al., 2014 ). Poor mental health can present as challenging behaviour, and is associated with disorders of social communication and language (Georgiades et al., 2010 ). In addition to externalizing problems, children with social communication difficulties (SCDs) are likely to experience anxiety (Moree & Davis, 2010 ). Cohen et al. ( 2013 ) and Wadman et al. ( 2011 ) reported that anxiety symptoms frequently occur in individuals with DLD in young adulthood. DLD can severely impact on mental health, and an increased risk for depressive symptoms has been consistently reported in this group. For example, clinical levels of depression range from 20% to 39% in children and adolescents with DLD compared with 14–18% in peers without DLD (Conti‐Ramsden & Botting, 2008 ). Difficulties with language and communication can affect daily living and extend across the lifespan to affect life outcomes. For instance, young offenders with language impairment are at a higher risk for mental health problems (Snow & Powell, 2004 ) and one of the biggest predictors of reoffending is unrecognized DLD (Winstanley et al., 2019 ).

It is possible that certain aspects of language and communication hold particular relevance for mental health. Van den Bedem et al. ( 2018 ) reported specifically more semantic problems in individuals with DLD and the contribution of this to the prediction of depressive symptoms. Children with pragmatic language difficulties also appear prone to emotional and psychosocial difficulties (Cohen et al., 2013 ). For example, in a community‐based longitudinal study, Sullivan et al. ( 2016 ) reported an association between poor pragmatic language in childhood and adolescent psychotic experiences, and that poor pragmatic language skills preceded early adolescent depression. Some children with pragmatic language impairments also show difficulties recognizing facial emotions (Merkenschlager et al., 2012 ), which may impact on their ability to respond appropriately to others and to form close relationships with those around them (Merkenschlager et al., 2012 ). Van den Bedem et al. ( 2018 ) suggested that children with social communication problems are more likely to adopt maladaptive emotional regulation strategies. These maladaptive strategies may contribute to the prediction of higher levels of depressive symptoms. Children with SLCN are also more likely to be the target of bullying and to experience emotional difficulties compared with their typically developing peers (Lloyd‐Esenkaya et al., 2021 ). SCDs are thought to predict social anxiety, and those who experience peer victimization are likely to present with SCDs (Pickard et al., 2018 ).

In clinical practice, those commonly diagnosed with SCDs and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may also present with pragmatic problems. Research shows that CYP with ASD and SCDs meet the diagnostic criteria for co‐morbid diagnoses of depression and anxiety disorders (Hofvander et al., 2009 ). The prevalence of mental health disorders in ASD is high. For example, in an interview study of 54 young adults with Asperger syndrome, 70% reported experiencing one major episode of depression and 56% reported experiencing anxiety disorders (Lugnegard et al., 2011 ). Furthermore, children with SCDs as part of ASD experience attention and challenging behaviour disorders (Moree & Davis, 2010 ; Georgiades et al., 2010 ) and this may lead to poor mental health.

Another factor that may link language, communication and mental health is the role of emotions and the impact of language and communication upon emotional processes. The ability to effectively vocalize feelings and thoughts relies heavily upon robust language skills, especially in relation to gaining a sense of self‐expression, self‐control and emotional insight (Unsworth & Engle, 2007 ). Neuropsychological evidence also highlights that damage to classic language areas in the brain affects emotion processing. Computerised tomography (CT) scans of patients who had sustained a traumatic brain injury found that damage to the inferior frontal gyrus (i.e., Broca's area) was associated with increased alexithymia scores (difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions) (Hobson et al., 2018 ). Similarly, communication problems of people who have had a stroke are associated with high alexithymia scores, even after accounting for depression and anxiety (Hobson et al., 2020 ). Such research has led to the proposal that the link between language and identifying emotions is intrinsic, and that language impairment could contribute to alexithymia and/or vice versa. This has been coined as the alexithymia language hypothesis (Hobson et al., 2020 ). While these studies reflect data from acquired language disorders (i.e., following traumatic brain injury or stroke), Hobson et al. ( 2020 ) suggests that individuals with developmental language problems are also likely to experience difficulties with alexithymia. Indeed, initial examinations of levels of alexithymia in DLD suggest that, at least according to children's parents, children with DLD have higher alexithymic traits and problems with recognizing and expressing their own emotions (Hobson & van den Bedem, 2021 ). If language problems lead to greater alexithymic traits, it would be expected that such emotional problems will increase the risk for mental health problems and impact on treatment.

Interventions for mental health and SLCN

There are clear links between language and communication problems and mental health, and plausible models for how these two domains interact. It is thus pertinent to ask: What can interventions do to help and are current interventions suitable for CYP with SLCN? The use of appropriately modified talking therapies for CYP with language and SCDs is lacking evidence. Nonetheless, deficits in speech, language and communication would be expected to negatively impact the effect of talking therapies as CYP with SLCN would have difficulties with understanding pragmatic and inferential language, understanding and using narrative language, and understanding and interpreting emotions. Furthermore, difficulties communicating abstract concepts in verbal and non‐verbal children have been identified as limiting factors to effectively access psychological therapies (Lang et al., 2010 ). Thus, social communication and language difficulties may reduce the accessibility and therefore efficacy of traditional talking therapies.

There appears little acknowledgement about the role of language and communication in modifications of talking therapies. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for the use of psychosocial interventions with adults with ASD (NICE, 2013 ) recommend using plain English during therapy sessions and avoiding the use of metaphors. In addition, much of the research in this area has focused largely on the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in children and adolescents and often with overt SLCN such as voice disorders, stammering and selective mutism (Bercow et al., 2016 ; Menzies et al., 2008 ). There is also a growing body of research on the use of adapted talking therapies for adults with SLCN. For instance, the Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) in Poststroke Aphasia SOFIA trial (Northcott et al., 2021 ) applied modified SFBT so that it was accessible to language‐impaired stoke survivors. There is no direct evidence for the use of adapted talking therapies in CYP with DLD or language impairments.

Without knowledge about the nature of the SLCN, suitable access to a talking therapy may be ineffective. For instance, individuals with ASD have more trouble understanding psychotherapy concepts than non‐autistic controls (Hall et al., 2015 ). Furthermore, differences in social communication may mean a lack of social chat, difficulties initiating and maintaining conversations and interpreting language literally, all of which would significantly impact upon effective accessibility to talking therapies (Bliss & Edmonds, 2008 ).

In summary, despite the evidence for a relationship between SLCN and mental health needs, there are considerable knowledge gaps in understanding the impact of SLCN on the efficacy and accessibility of treatments, and the role of SLCN in traditional talking therapies has been largely unexplored. Little is known about clinicians’ perspectives of SLCN and mental health difficulties. Therefore, to inform and build the evidence base, the current study explored the views and experiences of clinicians assessing and treating CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. The aim of the study was to explore clinicians’ experiences of working with CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. The study addressed the following research questions:

• With what difficulties do CYP with SLCN and mental health needs typically present?
• How do clinicians experience assessing and delivering therapies to CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties?
• What treatments are thought to be clinically useful for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties?

Research design

A qualitative research design using reflexive thematic analysis (TA) was chosen for this study in order to obtain a richness and depth to the data set that would appropriately answer the research questions. This approach facilitated an exploration of clinician experiences, observations and knowledge. A reflexive approach to TA was chosen due to the emphasis placed on the importance of the researcher's subjectivity as an analytic resource, and the reflexive engagement with theory, data and interpretation (Braun & Clarke, 2020 ). A reflexive approach is compatible with experiential qualitative research and was fundamental to the research questions. The approach adopted was an active and flexible process with the acknowledgement of theory. This process ensured a quality demonstrated in gold standard TA (Braun & Clarke, 2020 ). Interview questions were semi‐structured in nature; an interview guide and questions were constructed (see in the additional supporting information ) and followed from a flexible and dynamic perspective. The questions were designed to be open‐ended to facilitate flow of conversation with the aim to build rapport and encourage participants to talk about issues pertinent to the research questions.

Participants and recruitment

This study received ethical approval from University College London (LCD‐2020‐10). This study involved 14 clinicians: eight SLTs and six mental health professionals (Table  1 ). Inclusion criteria were that participants should be qualified allied health professionals in the field of speech and language therapy or mental health. Participants had to have sufficient professional experience (at least one year post‐qualification) working with CYP. Participants were provided with an information sheet written in plain English regarding the research area, interview procedure and research aims. Informed consent was obtained before each interview and participants were given the opportunity to ask questions.

Participant characteristics

Data collection

Interviews lasted for up to one hour and were conducted by the first author online via Microsoft Teams video conferencing software. Video‐audio data were collected. Online interviews were chosen for participant convenience and to ensure that the research could take place despite COVID‐19 pandemic restrictions. Each interview was recorded and transcribed verbatim by the first author and field notes were taken. Personally identifying information such as names and places of work were not transcribed to ensure participant anonymity. Video recordings were securely stored under encryption and deleted after analysis.

Data analysis

The transcribed interviews were subjected to an inductive thematic analysis. An inductive approach to thematic analysis was chosen due to the acknowledgement that epistemological assumptions would inevitably inform the analytic process (Braun & Clarke, 2020 ). However, the recognition that thematic analysis is a theoretically flexible approach was accepted and informed the analytic process. Therefore, the approach was descriptive but not wholly atheoretical. A flexible, active and interactive approach was central to the data analysis to support the process of theme generation, as opposed to theme emergence which could be deemed as not reflective of the data and the positionality of the researchers (Braun & Clarke, 2020 ).

NVivo 20 software was used to support line‐by‐line coding of all transcripts. A reflective diary was used to support the identification of themes from codes. Online team coding was conducted with two postgraduate research students and three senior researchers to support the process of reflexivity and refinement of theme generation. The first author presented raw data, identified codes and initial generated themes to the coding group; these were discussed, challenged and refined.

Reflexivity

As reflexive TA captures the skills the researcher brings to the process (Braun & Clarke, 2020 : 6), it is necessary to consider the researcher's perspective. The lead author is a female clinical academic SLT specializing in paediatric ASD, DLD and challenging behaviour. She is also a solution‐focused therapist and practices hypnotherapy with children and adults. The current project formed part of the lead researcher's pre‐doctoral clinical fellowship funded by The National Institute of Health Research. The co‐authors are senior researchers with experience in the fields of speech and language therapy and psychology with research in aphasia and solution‐focused brief therapy, alexithymia and SLCN. Participants were informed about the lead researcher's occupation, background and research aims. The lead researcher's interests and aims were not shared with the participants, and the researcher attempted to maintain a neutral stance throughout the interviews in order to obtain a true picture of clinicians’ experiences and understanding of specific subtypes of SLCN and their relationship to mental health.

Four main themes were generated from the data: (1) boundaries around professional relationships, (2) knowledge of SLCN and mental health, (3) being misunderstood: how CYP are perceived by others and (4) blended interventions. These are summarized in Figure  1 . We unpack each theme and its subthemes below.

Summary of the main themes and subthemes [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com ]

Note: SLT, speech and language therapy; MH, mental health; MDT, multidisciplinary team.

In addition, data were gathered regarding how participants characterize this population. SLCN and difficulties with mental health were identified by participants as frequently co‐occurring. These data are presented following a discussion of the four themes under Figure  2 : SLCN and mental health difficulties: typical difficulties reported in this population.

Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and mental health difficulties: typical difficulties reported in this population [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com ]

Theme 1: Boundaries around professional relationships

This theme describes observed discrepancies in the identification of children with SLCN and mental health difficulties, and discrepancies in approaches to working with this population between mental health professional participants and SLT participants. Differences in service provision, professional practice and lack of multidisciplinary team working were cited by participants as contributing factors to the observed discrepancies.

One subtheme concerned marked differences in the organization of SLT and mental health services. SLT and mental health services were not only considered differently organized but also highly variable depending upon postcode, funding and service set‐up. How services were set‐up was construed to play a large part in the appropriate management, or perceived mismanagement, of children with SLCN and mental health difficulties. Service boundaries were identified as contributing to a range of difficulties working across and between disciplines. For example, SLTs discussed difficulties referring to services such as child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), often receiving referral rejections from CAMHS with limited or no feedback. Other examples cited by participants were related to limited feedback or acknowledgement to receiving patient reports, a physical distance between services, and difficulties identifying appropriate treatment pathways for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties, particularly in mental health services. ‘Lots of referrals get rejected, so many referrals that we really feel as a team need CAMHS support’ (participant (P)5: SLT).

Participants described how services are often entirely separate and working in respective isolation. This was interpreted to contribute to a limited or total absence of joint working, resulting in a lack of knowledge of each profession's discipline and of discipline protocols, for example, referral systems, use of screening for appropriate referrals and confidentiality policies. Service level differences were also cited as causing difficulties identifying which discipline should assess and manage CYP. ‘It was sort of, oh no, that has to be CAMHS, CAMHS has to deal with them, and if they were under seven, then CAMHS would say, oh no, that has to be speech therapy, speech therapy is dealing with them’ (P3: SLT).

A second subtheme was limited multidisciplinary team (MDT) working. An MDT is a group of health or social care workers and professionals who are members of different disciplines, each of which provides a specific service to service users (Hodder Education, 2021 ). Differences in service provision and service funding resulting in a separation of professionals, both at a geographic and organization level, was construed as a contributing factor to limited MDT working between mental health and speech and language therapy. Participants described how SLTs and mental health professionals are often not part of the same MDT and therefore have fewer opportunities to provide integrated care. SLT participants commented that their profession is often unaccounted for within acute mental health services, and one mental health professional considered her role under the safeguarding team as being cut‐off from the SLT's role which was under the SEN team. In addition, some participants attributed limited MDT working to policy level differences such as psychological services not sharing information with SLT due to confidentiality policies and differences in patient note systems:

‘we're often funded by different streams and funded by different people, we work in different health trusts quite often, and that actually has massive implications for the fact a) that you're not physically in the same building, so you don't get to see these people very often, but that even things about how we collect data, our electronic patient systems, we often use very different data technology that, that can make things very difficult in terms of information sharing’. (P13: mental health professional)

SLT participants also described a lack of approachability from mental health professionals which was seen as alienating and limiting from a diagnostic and therapeutic perspective, further contributing to limited MDT working, collaboration and cohesion between these professional groups.

‘because you've talked about an incident or challenging behaviour or something like that, certain psychology colleagues see that as inappropriate or you've overstepped a boundary because you're talking about a kind of emotion when that's something that they do, or they perceive themselves as doing quite exclusively’. (P7: SLT)

Theme 2: Knowledge of SLCN and mental health difficulties

The first theme ‘Boundaries around professional relationships’ directly interacts with the second theme ‘Knowledge of SLCN and mental health difficulties’. A perceived lack of shared knowledge was seen to be related to limited opportunities for multidisciplinary experiences and the clinical service set‐up overall.

The first subtheme concerned the ‘visibility’ of SLCN. It was construed that potentially less immediately obvious SLCN, such as DLD, are less likely to be identified by mental health professionals than more visible SLCN, such as stammering and selective mutism. Visible SLCNs discussed more frequently by mental health professionals as opposed to invisible SLCNs. This discrepancy was described by participants as potentially contributing to unidentified SLCN and mental health difficulties within mental health services, and the lack of knowledge universally with assessment and treatment of this population.

‘I don't think that's typical for mental health practitioners (to consider language difficulties). No, I would definitely think I know my team, the teams that I've worked in, most people would not think about language, particularly language disorders in a young person as part of the part of their (psychology) assessment, unless a parent disclosed something like that, or unless they were very, it was very clear evidence that there were quite obvious difficulties’. (P13: mental health professional)

Difficulty teasing out SLCN from mental health issues (and vice versa) was also interpreted as contributing to a lack of knowledge regarding appropriate diagnosis of CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. It was construed that a lack of understanding of the relationship between SLCN and mental health often impacts upon which professional should and would assess and treat this population. Participants discussed how social skills historically have been explicitly taught by SLTs but that mental health professionals are increasingly using this approach as an intervention strategy. Participants discussed a general lack of clarity around role boundaries which could sometimes lead to perceptions of overstepping a professional role or boundary. ‘In my kind of experience, I find certain psychologists very much see emotion, or kinds of challenging behaviour as their domain and they don't like anyone stepping into it’ (P7: SLT).

Barriers to accessing talking therapies was the second subtheme. Knowledge around diagnosis was construed as relating directly to providing appropriate interventions for this population, particularly regarding talking therapies. Traditional talking therapies were interpreted as being potentially inaccessible and inflexible for individuals presenting with SLCN and mental health difficulties, particularly if language difficulties were unidentified. SLTs and some mental health professional participants viewed psychological therapies as language heavy, involving higher level language and concepts that CYP with SLCN would struggle to comprehend and verbalize.

‘I might go and observe a psychology session with them and then the language they're using is far too complex the, the psychological language, the therapy materials, they often use a metaphorical language, they're using kind of these images and symbolism, which is far too complex for the person in general and then they're not really understanding’ (P7: SLT).

Due to a perceived lack of knowledge, identification of CYP with less visible SLCN might be missed by mental health professionals and unaccounted for within traditional psychological therapies. SLT participants described how in such instances appropriate accessibility and efficacy of talking therapies for CYP with SLCN may be compromised. ‘I'm not sure how much they know about these particular children's language needs and like how therefore their intervention with DEAF‐CAMHS‐H [CAMHS for the hearing impaired] is delivered effectively’ (P2: SLT).

Theme 3: Being misunderstood/labelled as naughty

Both SLT and mental health professional participants construed CYP presenting with SLCN and mental health difficulties as misunderstood and often perceived negatively by staff, carers, parents and the wider environment. In particular, difficulties with challenging behaviour, dysregulation and disengagement were interpreted by participants as being misunderstood and perceived as ‘naughty’. Participants considered the high prevalence of behaviours such as disengagement, a distrust of professionals and school refusal as contributing to this perception. Participants interpreted this population as commonly using non‐typical social communication skills that may result in difficulties building and maintaining relationships with peers, staff, parents and carers, further contributing to a negative perception. Difficulties with understanding and expressing language were seen to be related directly to instances of challenging behaviour.

‘We tend to get a lot of young people who are presenting at school, with quite significant behavioural difficulties and we tend to find that being viewed as a behavioural child, rather than a child that's got underlying language needs that have been un‐diagnosed’ (P5: SLT).

Theme 4: Blended interventions

The final theme concerns blended interventions. This theme describes participants’ descriptions of optimum interventions for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. It was construed that working with the systems and environment around CYP is clinically useful for this population.

The first subtheme concerns working with the environment. The use of positive behavioural support systems, emotional regulation strategies and programmes, staff training, and the involvement of parents within interventions were deemed as clinically useful interventions for CYP experiencing SLCN and mental health issues. Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) is used by SLTs with the aim of improving interactions between children and their parents/carers (Falkus et al., 2016 ). Theraplay is used by psychotherapists to support healthy child/caregiver attachments (Institute of Theraplay, 2021 ). Both PCIT and Theraplay offer similar programmes where parents are involved as part of the intervention process. Participants discussed the potential of combining or utilizing such approaches in a more joined‐up manner for future targeted interventions. A functional approach to mitigating SLCN was also construed as beneficial for this population. Participants discussed how targeting specific aspects of SLCN may not be as beneficial as focusing on increasing overall functioning and well‐being of CYP.

‘So, I think in terms of delivering therapy, lots of it is about that environmental to therapeutics, so sort of, let's see if we can normalize the environment as much as we can in this environment and support behaviour through communication’ (P3: SLT).

The second subtheme concerned supports for communication. This theme was discussed universally by participants. The need to adapt language and consider therapist delivery within all diagnostic and therapeutic processes was seen as paramount for CYP experiencing SLCN and mental health difficulties. Using simple or no language to take the pressure off a requirement for verbal communication was interpreted as being necessary within any intervention for this population. Other visual supports, such as talking mats (Murphy et al., 2013 ) and communication systems, such as visual timetables and ‘now and next’ boards, were considered useful.

‘The use visuals, the use of visuals full stop. Whether that's visual or written timetable, even if the child has literacy so implementing a sort of routine on a timetable and consistent use of that across the day, I think works well’ (P4: SLT).

Play therapy or the use of play as a vehicle for access to psychological therapy for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties was considered a potentially useful psychological approach for this population due to the lack of emphasis upon verbal communication:

‘So, I think the use of toys and play can help bring their outer world about what's going on when, what they see inside and speech doesn't need to be, it doesn't need to be a part of that’ (P12: mental health professional). ‘I think the therapy it's different because I'm not expecting, they don't have to talk’ (P11: mental health professional).

Explicitly teaching higher level language was deemed an important intervention strategy, particularly in relation to comprehending and expressing emotions. One SLT participant described how they had combined a cognitive developmental theory of emotion and a psychotherapy model, with a vocabulary intervention directed through talking mats (Murphy et al., 2013 ) to facilitate communication. This was discussed and explored as a potentially useful way to develop emotion vocabulary comprehension and processing with this population.

‘You give people labels to understand what they're feeling physically, and then you move it onto more cognitive levels where that's the more kind of established sort of CBT, that kind of approach where they're thinking about their emotions and their thoughts … then you move on to the word level stage (of the vocabulary intervention) and that's very much around introducing kind of very basic semantic understanding of the word of the meaning and then you're building in the syntax and you're trying to get a really deep, you're trying to get there because they often have a vague notion of what certain words mean, but their understanding is very poor so you're trying to really reinforce a particular meaning or understanding of an emotion word’ (P7: SLT).

Merging interventions drawing upon practices from speech and language therapy and mental health was discussed. For instance, an SLT talked about how they had successfully combined shape coding (Ebbels, 2021 ), which is an established intervention used by SLTs, with social communication, emotional regulation, and transactional support (SCERTS), which is a behaviour intervention (Prizant et al., 2006 ). Participants also interpreted the use of relatable, non‐hypothetical language, and teaching how emotions look and feel in the body as being clinically necessary for this population. Participants advocated for the need to modify and adapt traditional talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy and using an individualized approach. ‘Lots of more sort of explicit ways of doing things and using lots of examples from his own his own life and things that he would bring to the session rather than me coming up with example’ (P13: mental health professional).

Common difficulties reported by interviewees to be seen in CYP with SLCN and poor mental health

In addition to the themes described above, participants generated discussion regarding how they characterize this population. In answer to the question ‘can you tell me about some of the difficulties these CYP experience?’, participants described a range of difficulties this population typically present with. This is not a diagnostic criterion; it is a set of descriptions used by participants to describe their experience of this population (Figure  2 ).

Participants felt that characterizing the overall presentation of this population is often problematic. Participants reported that it is difficult to determine what is specifically a SLCN and what is a mental health need. SLCN and difficulties with mental health were identified by participants as frequently co‐occurring. Key aspects of development were identified by participants as being typically delayed or disordered with CYP experiencing SLCN and mental health difficulties. Participants reported that CYP in this population would commonly experience difficulties across these areas. The first area identified was emotional well‐being. Participants felt that this population significantly struggle with feelings of self‐consciousness, low self‐esteem, and anxiety, often about the presence of a communication impairment, and the impact of their communication difficulty on their experiences with the world around them. Participants felt that difficulties with self‐esteem and anxiety could sometimes result in poor emotional resilience. One participant described how young offenders are at particular risk of developing low self‐esteem because of multiple exclusions from education and therefore a sense of rejection that they may experience throughout life. Another participant described how difficulties with SLCN could impact on their well‐being and levels of anxiety and distress and behaviour. ‘We definitely see those children, they're often very anxious and there is definitely an impact of some of their difficulties on their well‐being, self‐esteem and their mental health’ (P5: SLT).

The second common characteristic was challenging behaviour. Participants described this population as typically experiencing difficulties with engagement, staying on task, and finding it hard to comply with work in the classroom or, with other professionals. Typical behavioural difficulties were problems with emotional regulation and the presence of anger or aggressive behaviours. Participants described how CYP can be disruptive or conversely appear withdrawn and isolated in social situations. Other reported difficulties in this area were with attention and listening and with building and maintaining relationships, particularly with peers.

‘We see quite a lot of, we describe it as anxiety for the children that, that I work with and dysregulation is a term that I've been using much more recently, so that can present as very elevated, it can present us physical aggression, some self‐harm and behaviours, yeah, sort of, socially inappropriate behaviours in terms of removing clothes and smearing and that sort of thing’ (P10: mental health professional).

The final area identified as characteristic of this population was language and cognition. Participants felt that this category of CYP experience difficulties with general language comprehension, processing of spoken language and with their expressive language. ‘Verbally he (a patient) appeared to understand things very well or he had a good, he had a good vocabulary, but actually his understanding was limited so he could be quite misleading’ (P13: mental health professional).

Difficulties with executive function was also discussed, often in relation to CYP being able to appropriately plan and organize themselves. One participant cited how it is common for CYP to arrive late to lessons, getting lost en‐route and forgetting school equipment. Difficulties with verbal reasoning were also described as commonly present with this population. ‘They're breaking their curfews and they end up in trouble with the police and things because they can't tell the time’ (P5: SLT).

Difficulties with metacognition (thinking about thinking) was also highlighted by participants as a typical difficulty seen in these CYP. Difficulties with insight, being able to monitor their communication and planning how to approach a learning task were all discussed as typical problems for this population. ‘They may not have insight into their own language use or behaviour’ (P2: SLT).

‘Difficulties with higher order language and the use of sophisticated, abstract and emotional language was also reported. Participants reported CYP in this population often experience difficulties understanding and using emotion language, particularly labelling emotions. They don't know what it means when somebody uses those words (emotional words), or is sarcastic’ (P5: SLT).

The misunderstanding of negative constructions was discussed as being a barrier to understanding emotions:

‘You might conceive that someone's doing something to you because you can't understand negative constructions, for instance, you just you assume everyone's just doing things to you but you're the one who's not quite understanding like the word no, or negative things’ (P7: SLT).

Difficulties with being able to understand abstract language and using language in a more abstract way to make predictions, use hypothetical language and humour was also cited as a typical difficulty in this population. ‘He would struggle with transferring that knowledge from a discussion about a hypothetical person to himself’ (P10: mental health professional).

The current study explored the experiences and views of SLTs and mental health professionals working with CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. Discussion around CYP with SCDs such as ASD, and developmental language disorder (DLD) was of particular interest. SLTs and mental health professionals in this study perceived certain subtypes of SLCN to commonly co‐occur with mental health difficulties. Findings suggest that there are organizational and service set‐up boundaries between SLTs and mental health clinicians, which has implications for the efficacy of assessment and treatment of this population. Findings also suggest that this population is often misunderstood and misidentified. The current research indicates that combined approaches in SLT and mental health may be beneficial for CYP who present with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health needs.

The current research has also identified that distinct barriers exist between mental health clinicians and SLTs which has led to boundaries between these professional groups. The most significant barrier was found to be around service organization and set‐up. Participants described how, as professionals, they felt organizational difficulties led to feelings of ‘failing’ this cohort. Findings suggest that mental health professionals and SLTs are often not in the same MDT and that SLT is often not a recognised professional group within children and adolescent mental health services. SLT and mental health services appear to be functioning in parallel, working under different teams, services, NHS trusts, local authorities, and sometimes entirely different organizations. Service set‐up and organization limitations were deemed to result in fewer opportunities for MDT working which has a negative impact on the knowledge professionals have of CYP with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health difficulties. Within the United Kingdom there is currently an ongoing consultation process with The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and CAMHS to recognise the role of SLT within mental services and to increase SLT roles within core CAMHS services.

The current research highlights how a lack of understanding of this population is a clinical concern and has been described by participants in this study as having implications for effective diagnosis and treatment. The current study also illustrates that availability of joined up and multidisciplinary services for this population is scarce. This has resulted in a lack of shared knowledge about this population, leading to challenges with diagnosis, particularly with CYP who exhibit invisible SLCN and mental health difficulties such as DLD. The current research highlights that CYP with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health difficulties may be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed by professionals. This may mean CYP in this population fail to receive appropriately modified and evidence‐based treatment. The current findings resonate with other recent investigations of parents’ experiences concerning mental health support for their children with SLCN. Parents have reported concerns that mental health treatments were not accessible for their children and lacked adaptations necessary for them to work for children with conditions such as DLD (Hobson et al., 2021 ).

Typical behaviours and characteristics of CYP with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health needs are often misunderstood by parents, carers and professionals resulting in this population being misinterpreted and often labelled as ‘naughty’. Behaviours that are typically misunderstood include anger or emotional outbursts due to difficulties with emotional regulation, disengagement, language difficulties and problems with building and maintaining adult and peer relationships. Participants reported that children in this population are frequently ‘angry’ or show aggressive behaviours, and experience difficulties with friendships, can be distrusting of professionals, and are likely to show poor school attendance. Participants observed that CYP in this population are also likely to experience school expulsion, attendance to pupil referral units, and in some cases youth offending institutions/team (YOT).

A key finding was that interventions used in both speech and language therapy and psychotherapy are perceived as clinically useful if combined. Other research (Bercow et al., 2016 ; Menzies et al., 2018 ) has applied mental health interventions to specific subtypes of SLCN such as stammering, selective mutism and ASD, but little in relation to DLD. Participants discussed how they have successfully blended behaviour and emotion programmes with language and communication interventions. Similarly, participants discussed how combining traditional talking therapies, such as CBT, with modifications to account for communication difficulties, such as using visual supports, can be beneficial.

Hollo et al. ( 2014 ) has called for the development of interventions to ameliorate the effects of these dual deficits. Findings from the current study show that some existing or modified interventions are anecdotally effective. A good starting point for future research would be with the exploration of adapted traditional talking therapies and psychological therapies combined with SLT. A preliminary finding from the current research is that play therapy could also offer a potentially useful psychological therapy for CYP with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health difficulties due to its child‐led nature and lack of emphasis upon language and communication. Interestingly, play therapy was also raised by parents of children with DLD in the study by Hobson et al. ( 2021 ) as an approach that they felt would be worth pursuing. This has yet to be directly explored in individuals with SLCN but could offer further direction for future research into interventions for this population.

Findings from the current research show that it is not typical for mental health clinicians to consider language and communication skills within their assessment and treatment processes. The potential impact of this omission was described by participants as limiting CYP with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health needs to therapies that would likely be inaccessible. The current study has found that traditional talking therapies may not be modified for this population, unless the CYP have an obvious or diagnosed SLCN. This has implications for the efficacy of treatments provided, highlighting that traditional talking therapies, if not appropriately modified, are likely to be suboptimal for this cohort. Participants felt that traditional talking therapies could be reasonably adjusted to be accessible to individuals with SLCN. In a recent intervention study where aphasic adult patients received SFBT, Northcott et al. ( 2015 ) concluded that modifying question forms of therapy enabled greater accessibility.

Clinicians identified that CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties most commonly experience difficulties across and between the domains of language and cognition, emotional well‐being and challenging behaviour. Fundamentally, participants considered that it is typical for CYP to present with co‐occurring SLCN and mental health difficulties, that is, difficulties across speech, language and communication and mental health. Previous research reports that children and adolescents with DLD and ASD are likely to experience difficulties with anxiety and depression (Cohen et al., 2013 ; Hofvander et al., 2009 ; Wadman et al., 2011 ). Results from the current study reflect this, indicating that difficulties with language and social communication are likely to interact with mental health difficulties. In addition, participants felt that SLCN can profoundly affect a person's social and emotional well‐being, and this can lead to poor mental health.

Participants described how CYP typically experiencing difficulties with higher level language are likely to find understanding and expressing emotions challenging. This supports existing frameworks such as the alexithymia language hypothesis (Hobson et al., 2020 ) which proposes that because of the intrinsic relationship between language and emotions, CYP with conditions such as ASD and DLD may be more likely to experience co‐occurring difficulties with mental health.

A limitation of the current study was that some of the participants were recruited from the researcher's professional network. Thus, a convenience sample was used and therefore potential selection bias may have been present, resulting in a failure to capture important perspectives from hard‐to‐reach participants. However, it is important to note that the range of participant specialities, knowledge and skill set was heterogenous and diverse.

Clear directions for future research have been identified from the results of the current study. The service organization, set‐up and service provision for this population is problematic. Future studies could explore and evaluate current services, set‐up and structure across and between SLT and mental health. The findings from the current study have important implications for the efficacy of treatments provided to this population, suggesting that more research needs to be done in this area. There exists a large gap in the evidence base for intervention‐based studies with this population. Larger scale intervention studies could also provide evidence for the efficacy of psychological approaches with this population. Future studies could also explore the adaptability of traditional talking therapies, combining approaches drawn from SLT and psychological therapies and the exploration of play therapy. Intervention studies analysing the efficacy of psychological therapies in children and adolescents with SLCN should arguably be conducted in part with SLT to provide input regarding SLCN. Modifications to talking therapies in young people with SLCN are therefore necessary in order to reflect and treat the presence of SLCN and mental health difficulties. Research from Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) in Poststroke Aphasia SOFIA trial (Northcott et al., 2021 ) suggests that modifications to SFBT is a promising psychotherapy approach for adults with aphasia, and that it is possible to adapt a language‐based psychological intervention for people with language disorders. In addition, behavioural activation therapy has also been shown to be successfully modifiable for adults with aphasia (Thomas et al., 2013 ) but further evidence, especially in a paediatric population, is scarce.

The current study aimed to describe typical presentations of this population, clinician experiences treating this population and clinically useful treatment approaches. The findings present a picture of the problems CYP with SLCN and mental health needs commonly experience and has enabled the documentation of a range of clinician experiences and views to inform and build a limited evidence base. Findings suggest that there are distinct organizational and service set‐up limitations with implications for the assessment and treatment of CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties. Interventions drawing upon SLT, and mental health approaches may be beneficial for this population.

Supporting information

Supporting Information

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Annabel Hancock thanks The Owl Therapy Centre for their invaluable support and for making this project a reality. She also thanks her supervisors and The NIHR for funding this project as part of the Predoctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship. She is also grateful to the participants who took part in this project, without which this research would not have been possible.

Hancock, A. , Northcott, S. , Hobson, H. , & Clarke, M. (2023) Speech, language and communication needs and mental health: the experiences of speech and language therapists and mental health professionals . International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders , 58 , 52–66. 10.1111/1460-6984.12767 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

The NIHR funded this project as part of Annabel Hancock's Predoctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

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3.1 The Importance of Delivery

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Will Durant

Some surveys indicate that many people claim to fear public speaking more than death, but this finding is somewhat misleading. No one is afraid of writing their speech or conducting the research. Instead, people generally only fear the delivery aspect of the speech, which, compared to the amount of time you will put into writing the speech (days, hopefully), will be the shortest part of the speech giving process (5-8 minutes, generally, for classroom speeches). The irony, of course, is that delivery, being the thing people fear the most, is simultaneously the aspect of public speaking that will require the least amount of time.

Consider this scenario about two students, Bob and Chris. Bob spends weeks doing research and crafting a beautifully designed speech that, on the day he gets in front of the class, he messes up a little because of nerves. While he may view it as a complete failure, his audience will have gotten a lot of good information and most likely written off his mistakes due to nerves, since they would be nervous in the same situation!

Chris, on the other hand, does almost no preparation for his speech, but, being charming and comfortable in front of a crowd, smiles a lot while providing virtually nothing of substance. The audience takeaway from Chris’s speech is, “I have no idea what he was talking about” and other feelings ranging from “He’s good in front of an audience” to “I don’t trust him.” So the moral here is that a well-prepared speech that is delivered poorly is still a well-prepared speech, whereas a poorly written speech delivered superbly is still a poorly written speech.

Despite this irony, we realize that delivery is what you are probably most concerned about when it comes to giving speeches, so this chapter is designed to help you achieve the best delivery possible and eliminate some of the nervousness you might be feeling. To do that, we should first dismiss the myth that public speaking is just reading and talking at the same time. You already know how to read, and you already know how to talk, which is why you’re taking a class called “public speaking” and not one called “public talking” or “public reading.”

Speaking in public has more formality than talking. During a speech, you should present yourself professionally. This doesn’t necessarily mean you must wear a suit or “dress up” unless your instructor asks you to. However, it does mean making yourself presentable by being well-groomed and wearing clean, appropriate clothes. It also means being prepared to use language correctly and appropriately for the audience and the topic, to make eye contact with your audience, and to look like you know your topic very well.

While speaking has more formality than talking, it has less formality than reading. Speaking allows for flexibility, meaningful pauses, eye contact, small changes in word order, and vocal emphasis. Reading is a more or less exact replication of words on paper without the use of any nonverbal interpretation. Speaking, as you will realize if you think about excellent speakers you have seen and heard, provides a more animated message.

As the day of his public speaking engagement drew near, Pistol Pete found himself grappling with a common concern that many speakers face – what to do with his hands during his speech. As the spirited mascot of Oklahoma State University, Pete was well-versed in captivating audiences with his energetic presence on the field, but standing behind a podium in a formal setting felt entirely different.

With each passing day, his anxiety grew. During his practice sessions, Pete would awkwardly fidget with his hands, unsure of where to place them or how to use them effectively. He worried that his usual animated gestures might be too distracting or inappropriate for a formal speech.

Late one evening, Pete confided in a close friend, expressing his nervousness and concern about his upcoming speech. His friend, a seasoned public speaker, offered some reassuring advice. They encouraged Pete to focus on being natural and genuine, advising him to use his hands to emphasize important points and to express his passion for the topic.

Taking the advice to heart, Pete decided to rehearse his speech once more. This time, he consciously let go of his worries about his hand movements and embraced a more relaxed approach. He discovered that by using his hands to complement his words, he felt more connected to the audience and his message.

On the day of his speech, as Pete stood before the audience, he took a deep breath and reminded himself of the advice he had received. As he began to speak, he felt a newfound confidence in his gestures. He allowed his hands to express his enthusiasm, creating a natural flow that resonated with the crowd.

As the speech progressed, Pete’s worries about his hands faded away. Instead, he focused on sharing the captivating story of Frank Eaton and his legacy, letting his gestures amplify the emotions and importance of his words. In that moment, Pistol Pete realized that sometimes, the best thing to do with his hands was to let them be an extension of his authentic self, creating a genuine connection with the audience and leaving a lasting impression. How comfortable are you with using your hands effectively during a presentation?

* Pistol Pete scenarios are all based on hypothetical events and were written with the use of Chatgpt and careful editing by Speech Communication faculty. 

Introduction to Speech Communication Copyright © 2021 by Individual authors retain copyright of their work. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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3 Reasons Why Public Speaking is Important

Communication is the backbone of our society. It allows us to form connections, influence decisions, and motivate change. Without communication skills, the ability to progress in the working world and in life, itself, would be nearly impossible.

Public speaking is one of the most important and most dreaded forms of communication. Glossophobia or speech anxiety, is the most common fear people have across the globe. Throughout primary school, it is easy to be the student who sits in the back of the classroom and avoids raising his or her hand to dodge such situations. But in the working world, public speaking is a vital skill to have and to hone. It effects simple, everyday interactions between coworkers, bosses and employees, marketing professionals and clients, etc., and it can have an enormous impact on your career path and your level of success in your industry.

There are many reasons why public speaking is important but the 3 that we believe to be the most significant are:

1. To Win Over the Crowd

An important skill to have in business and especially in the public relations arena is the skill of persuasion or the ability to win over the crowd. Inside and outside the workplace, the power of persuasion can carry you far and it all starts by honing those public speaking skills. Mastering public speaking results in an increase in confidence and with that, a cool and collected presence in front of an audience. Of course it is imperative to be knowledgeable about the subject you are presenting, but beyond that, when making a persuasive speech of any kind, including a sales pitch to a client, you need to be prepared to answer the opposition, and to speak with poise.

To make a strong case, the ability to speak publicly is not only important, but essential to make forward strides. For example, in order to express why a certain product or idea would be an interesting topic to an editor of a publication, one must use strong enough, convincing language to elicit intrigue and curiosity. A great pitch will persuade the consumer or editor to want to know more. When addressing any audience with an idea or argument for or against something, public speaking allows you to make your case compellingly and convincingly.

For tips on how to pitch the media, read “ Pitching Do’s & Don’ts with PR Pros “

2. To Motivate People

A great public speaker attains the power to motivate his or her audience to do something, stop doing something, change a behavior, or reach objectives. But to carry an idea forward, you must be able to excite and enliven your peers, employees, coworkers, customers.

Public speakers are leaders who are able to inspire their audience to work harder to achieve their goals. As a public speaker, your role is to influence your listeners and create an environment where everyone walks out ready to roll. You are not merely giving a speech in the attempt to get your audience to take a certain action; speakers are part of the action and can convey their passion and drive. It is not enough to simply know about the issues at hand but to make your audience share your passion. Elections have been won simply because one candidate was a better public speaker than the other. Being knowledgeable is a factor, of course, but more importantly, being able to arouse passion in people through skilled public speaking will motivate your audience to make a move.  When people talk about having a voice in the world, they mean having an impact on the world by voicing your thoughts and your knowledge in an exciting way. A mastery of public speaking allows you to relate to the audience and gain their trust. As a skilled public speaker, you become likable and believable, and you will be able to inspire and even entertain the crowd.

Looking to inspire through powerful brand storytelling? Read “ Why Hire a PR Agency Right Now (& How to Get C-Suite Buy-In) “

3. To Inform

The ability to inform is one of the most important aspects of public speaking.  From presenting research papers and PowerPoint presentations in school to presenting ideas and pitches to your boss or client, informative public speaking is a vital component of a successful career across all work fields. Once you have their attention, a good informative speech sharing your knowledge of a subject with an audience, enhances their understanding and makes them remember your words long after you’ve finished. For example, you might be asked to instruct a group of coworkers on how to use new computer software or to address your employees on company happenings. Whether it is giving demonstrations or sharing an area of expertise, this form of public speaking is an essential skill in today’s world.

According to a  study  by sociologist, Andrew Zekeri, “Oral communication skills were the number one skill that college graduates found useful in the business world.” Communication skills enhance your ability to interact with professionals and fellow colleagues in a qualified and composed manner. Public speaking improves these skills and thus, makes you a more worthy candidate to move up and succeed in your chosen field.

Perfect the rest of your thought leadership strategy with this guide .

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2 Minute Speech On Communication Skills In English

Good morning everyone present here, today I am going to give a speech on communication skills. The act of exchanging thoughts and ideas with the goal of influencing one another is referred to as communication. Clear communication of one’s opinions, ideas, thoughts, or requirements is the goal of communication. Both personal and professional lives are negatively impacted by poor communication abilities.

In every field, having effective communication skills is a requirement for professionals. A minor misunderstanding can leave one feeling terrible, especially when they are ill. Participating in a session that is facilitated can enhance workplace communication. The facilitator must be able to spot passive individuals and get them to speak up without coming across as overly judgmental.

Salespeople are tasked with persuading potential customers that purchasing a product is a wise investment. This is accomplished by evaluating the customer’s demands and recommending a product that satisfies them. The aim of communication will be met as long as there is clarity in the exchange.

For one to survive in society, effective communication skills are essential. There are several methods that one might use to improve their communication skills. People have two options: they can read up on the subject or attend workshops. Hand and facial gestures are a simple way to convey what spoken words cannot. Thank you.

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