Communication Training

Abstract

Successful interpersonal communication involves a number of complementary processes depending on the medium in which the communication occurs. When a spoken message is received, the speaker’s voice tone, facial expression, posture and gestures and the context can all contribute to the overall meaning. Normal verbal communication incorporates a range of expressive and receptive skills that are acquired as part of normal language development to help us to convey and receive information, ideas and feelings. In spoken English, gesture is generally less important than in certain other languages. However, the underlying psychology of interpersonal behaviour is sufficiently important that the overall interpretation of a conversation can be completely changed if different body language is used. To convey the same information in the absence of all the normal auditory and visual body-language clues requires a much broader vocabulary and subtler phraseology, as used by people who excel in the use of the written word. At the other extreme, indigenous manual communication, such as British Sign Language, has a smaller actual ‘vocabulary’ but uses facial expression and gestural cues to a much greater extent than an equivalent spoken language to express the same range of meaning. The dependence of successful communication on so many factors means that the impairment of any aspect of a person’s expressive or receptive capability will affect the communication process. It also means that there are other channels that can be utilized to optimize communication when one function is impaired. The essence of communication training is the optimization of all the available expressive and receptive skills, making the best use of the residual impaired function and compensating where possible by enhancing other facets of communication.