Communication Breakdown

My son came home last week with an assignment on communication. I had a field day trying to get him to understand the concept of shared meaning between intelligences, after the first five minutes of trying to explain Prof. Aggrey Brown's definition of communication, it became very clear from his knitted brows that I was failing, miserably. Eventually the cup overflowed and Kaheim begged "Mommy, please just tell me how people communicate."

So I thought for a minute, apologised and tried again. I sought the simplest words and sourced the simplest diagram and this is what it broke down to

HOW PEOPLE COMMUNICATE:

COMMUNICATION CYCLE

 

Communication is a process that is used to share information or in other words exchange messages in an attempt to understand each other.

The communication process involves a SENDER a MESSAGE a CHANNEL a RECEIVER and FEEDBACK.

SENDER:

This is the person who starts the process. The sender thinks about what he has to say and how he wants to say it. He then decides on what he will say and formulates it into a message.

EXAMPLE: Jack wants his mom to know about the upcoming party at school.

  

MESSAGE:

This is what the sender decides to say.

EXAMPLE: Mommy, there will be a party at school on Friday and I would like to go.

CHANNEL:

This is the way that the Sender chooses to send the message. There are several channels for sending messages such as, telephone, e-mail, letters, and notes.

EXAMPLE: Jack will be in bed by his mom gets home from work so he writes his message in a NOTE and leaves it on the table

RECEIVER:

This is the person who gets the message.

EXAMPLE: When Jack’s mother came home from work she saw the NOTE on the table and read Jack’s MESSAGE.

FEEDBACK:

This is the message the receiver sends back to the sender after receiving the message. The feedback is either to ask for more information or share their idea or opinion on the message. The receiver also has to decide on how to send the feedback.

EXAMPLE: Jack mother writes a note saying “Yes Jack you may go but be home by 5.”

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

There are two types of communication, verbal and non-verbal.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION is sharing or exchanging information by using words. Whether the words are written or spoken it is still verbal communication.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION is the exchanging or sharing of information without the use of words. This includes body language, images and facial expression.

Body Language: This is the way in which people send messages without using words but by positioning their bodies or carrying out other actions to send a message.

EXAMPLE: A person might turn their back if they are not interested in something or hug themselves if they are cold.

Facial Expression: This is how a person sends a message using only their face to send their message,

EXAMPLE: A smile to show happiness, a frown to show sadness, rolling the eyes to show annoyance.