Talking and Listening Skills
SOW3350 and SOW5379
Professor Nan Van Den Bergh, PhD, LCSW
Introduction
• Social workers need well-developed
communication skills in all phases and
aspects of social work practice.
• Communication skills are especially
significant for engaging diversity and
difference.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
– Unless social workers can both understand and be
understood by the people they hope to serve,
their knowledge and expertise will be of limited
value.
– Culturally sensitive communication skills are
essential for ethical and effective social work
practice in the contemporary world.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
Cultural Competence: Engaging
Diversity and Difference
• Cultural competence is the awareness,
knowledge, understanding, sensitivity, and
skill needed to effectively conduct and
complete professional activities with people of
diverse cultural backgrounds and affiliations.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
– No one is ever fully culturally competent, even in
regard to their own culture.
– Cultural competence is an ongoing process.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
Diversity within Ethnicity
• There is a lot of diversity within ethnic groups.
– It is better to ask a client to identify their ethnic
group rather than to assume.
– Give the client the opportunity to decline to give
this information.
– Unless the information is really needed, don’t ask
for it.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
Communication Errors
• Even trained interviewers make a lot of
communication errors.
– Being patronizing or condescending
– Interrogating rather than interviewing
– Focusing on themselves rather than the client
– Failing to pay attention to all aspects of the client’s
communication
– Interrupting
– Failing to listen or selective listening
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
– Failing to find out what the client wishes to be
called
– Failing to consider the cultural meaning of the
interview to the client
– Not using active listening
– Stereotyping people or groups
– Suggesting solutions based on incomplete
information
– Using absolutist terms (always, never…)
– Prematurely disclosing feelings, etc.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
– Confronting or challenging before understanding
or establishing a relationship
– Speculating without adequate information
– Pushing for action before the client is ready
– Using clichés and jargon
– Criticizing other professionals or agencies
– Displaying inappropriate emotions
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
Nonverbal Communications and Body
Language
• A great deal of human communication is
nonverbal.
– Factors such as posture, facial expression, eye
contact, gait, and body positioning represent
important forms of communication.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• Body language should be congruent with
verbal language.
– Clients notice inconsistencies between what is
said verbally and what is expressed nonverbally.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• Social workers typically hope that their body
language communicates attention and interest
in the other person, as well as caring, concern,
respect, and authenticity.
– In beginning interviews, adopt an open body
position.
– If standing, arms and hands loosely by your side; if
sitting, hands on your lap.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• Adjust body language to suit the clients and
their situation.
– Sit on the floor with small children, etc.
• Arrange office furniture in a way that enables
clients to have as much or as little eye contact
as they want.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• Much important communication happens in
cars while workers are transporting clients or
in other informal settings, as clients feel less
threatened then.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
Listening
• Listening is essential for effective social work
practice.
– It requires that the worker minimize attention to
her/his own experiences and concentrate on the
client with a determination to understand what
the client is experiencing and expressing.
– Accurate understanding conveys respect for the
client.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• There are four skills needed for effective
listening.
– Hearing involves paying attention to the meaning
of and feeling attached to the words the person is
saying.
– Observing involves paying attention to nonverbal
communication.
– Encouraging involves using short verbal responses
which invite the client to continue.
– Remembering what the client communicates.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
Active Listening
• Active listening combines talking and listening
skills in such a way that others feel understood
and encouraged to express themselves
further.
– It is a form of feedback.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• There are three steps in active listening:
– Inviting uses body position, facial expression,
speech, and language, to indicate readiness to
listen
– Listening involves hearing, observing,
encouraging, and remembering.
– Reflecting involves paraphrasing the client’s
statements or identifying the feelings he is
experiencing.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing
• Common errors in active listening include:
– Using too many of the client’s words so that you
appear to be mimicking.
– Repeating the same lead-in phrases too often.
– Trying to be clever or profound.
– Responding to only facts or feelings, instead of to
both.
– Interrupting.
– Using active listening too often.
©2011, Cengage Learning, Brooks/
Cole Publishing