http://work.chron.com/effective-communication-skills-social-workers-7168.

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Communication in social work
The article talks about the communication skills that a social worker must have, like
listening skills, getting information, nonverbal behaviors, building trust, and it makes a better
view of all of them to undersand how important communication is for a social worker.
Obviously, without having this skills, a social worker would have a lot of difficulties in doing
his job. Communication skills can be essential to the task of assessment, interviewing and
later decision making for social workers.
In practice, good communication skills, practically listening and interview skills are
crucial for establishing efficient and respectful relationships with service users. Social
workers must demonstrate several skills while assessing or interviewing a client.
Communication is based on many skills like I said before, each of them having an important
role in obtaining the information that the social worker wants to get. Listening skills are a
part of communcation and for some, one of the most important part of communication "If
frequency is a measure of importance, then listening easily qualifies as the most prominent
kind of communication" (Adler & Rodman, 1997, p. 283). Listening may appear to be simple
but active listening skills need to be learned, practised in training, developed and refreshed for
effective use in real situations. Listening involves more than the simple act of hearing sound.
It involves powers of cognitive processing. In order to facilitate effective communication,
listeners should employ active listening skills with the aim of concentrating on the meaning of
a speaker's message. Good listening skills make social workers more productive. The ability
to listen carefully allows workers to better understand assignments they are given. They are
able to understand what the client really want to explain and it make easier his work.
On the other hand, getting information from the client is also very important for a
social worker. It is vital for a social worker to know how to ask the client the information that
he want to obtain, the question should be simple, friendly and concise. If the social worker
does not access the situation correctly they may be conceived as being too formal or informal
and this will inevitable create barriers. Further, many service users tend to come from
vulnerable sections of society. It is possible that their involvement with social workers may
invoke feelings of shame or fear.
According to experts, a substantial portion of our communication is nonverbal. Every
day, we respond to thousands on nonverbal cues and behaviors including postures, facial
expression, eye gaze, gestures, and tone of voice. From our handshakes to our hairstyles,
nonverbal details reveal who we are and impact how we relate to other people. In many cases,
we communicate information in nonverbal ways using groups of behaviors. For example, we
might combine a frown with crossed arms and unblinking eye gaze to indicate disapproval.
Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the
act of generating the information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures. Decoding
is the interpretation of information from received sensations from previous experiences. A
social worker should use this skill while doing his job. He can get the answer that the client
doesnt want to give using the nonverbal behaviors that the social worker can notice.

Building trust is also an important skill for a social worker, he must have a good
relationship with the client. The client should trust the person that he has in front, so he can
tell everything is needed.
In conclusion I think that this article tries to explain the communication skills for a
social worker and the importance that these have in doing his job. It is important that social
workers work to always improve these skills and complete trainings to keep their work to a
high level.