Essentials of Emotional Communication for Reaching the Unreachable Student: Where Do I Start? What Do I Say? How Do I Do It?
Reyes, Carmen Y.
Synopsis "Essentials of Emotional Communication for Reaching the Unreachable Student: Where Do I Start? What Do I Say? How Do I Do It?"
This innovative book is a comprehensive source of interactive (language-based) skills that gives teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and administrators a unique opportunity in connecting, influencing, and guiding hard to reach students. Elsewhere, effective behavior managers are best known for their strong repertoire of interpersonal communication skills. Understanding how verbal and nonverbal messages operate in our interactions with our most challenging students enables school staff to engage distraught children in constructive interactions and in positive processing of their feelings and behaviors. Once teachers learn how to use language that contributes in the healing process of children's troubling feelings and dysfunctional behaviors, interpersonal communication skills reach the level of emotional or therapeutic communication. This 300+ pages book includes 18 chapters sub-divided into four sections: -Part 1: The Basics (Chapters 1-3) -Part 2: Where Do I Start? (Chapters 4-6) -Part 3: What Do I Say? (Chapters 7-15) -Part 4: How Do I Do It? (Chapters 16-18) On Part 1, "The Basics," the author inspires teachers by revealing the magic inherent in the words we say to students. Emotional communication is presented within the broader context of interpersonal communication, including principles and steps. Part 1 includes a section in nonverbal communication as well as an analysis of feelings and their role in learning. Part 2, "Where Do I Start?" focuses on how to create rapport with an angry or troubled child, the single most important element in emotional communication. There are also techniques in therapeutic listening and a discussion of the role of the self in emotional communication. Part 3, "What Do I Say?" includes a large selection of therapeutic language techniques. The author's analyses on the fundamentals of language and on linguistic patterns that influence positive behavior make this book worth every penny. From Chapters 8-to-15, we learn one linguistic technique after another, with each new technique adding to the impact of the previous ones. The therapeutic dialogue is described step-by-step, from the beginning of the interaction (how to open the message) to the end of the interaction (shifting the message). The fourth and last part, "How Do I Do It?" is the application part; the "grand finale" of this must-read book. Chapter 17, "The Supportive Style" includes dozens of therapeutic interventions to defuse power struggles.
