Barriers to Communication

Someone recently asked me what are the barriers to communication? Well I going to knock myself out and tell you just what barriers I face and how they affect me on a personal level. I may also touch on other barriers that don’t affect me but I can see causing a problem for those I work with.

Communication has always been my biggest barrier in life and one that I have struggled to overcome since a little boy with no speech. Growing up I found that speech is only one part of the barrier and really hasn’t been the hardest to overcome. Most of what we say is total rubbish anyway and I have communicated better with people around me without the use of speech. Before I move on to methods I use as my communication I thought it would be good to touch onto the barriers with speech.

Speech and the spoken language! The real problem with speech is the speed it works at, there is no delay or time to correct what you have said. Once you have opened your mouth and started to speak a word, you have already expressed so much information. Someone like me who has a problem with speech this becomes even more difficult. Take a simple word that most would open a dialog with another person, “hello” first barrier for me is remembering to swallow so I don’t end up choking on my own saliva when I open my mouth, worse still end up dribbling what saliva down the front of me that will portray a whole different message to the person I am saying hello to. The next barrier is just how I say the word. Tone, pitch and volume are all concepts that having a hearing loss are alien to me. Most people say that I have a London accent but understanding accents and how people talk is another barrier I do not understand. When do you say “Hello” and why, does the person really want to make conversation with me and if so why? Should I reply with a hello back, what do I say next? Should I ask “how are you?” you get the picture. The spoken language has a whole set of rules that are very different depending on who you are with, where and when. I could write a whole book on the barriers that I face on speech alone but I am sure there are 100 of books out there on this topic. All I know is sometimes it’s really too much effort and is hard and complex form of communication to manage within the spilt second you open your mouth.

Written language, there are many forms of written language and I am aware that I have not touch on many other barriers of communication before talking about this subject. The reason why I have jumped from speech to written is because it’s the most common two forms of communication that people understand but is far the most common two used. For example the biggest use of communication I use is silence. The amount of times I have done nothing to portray a message across is much more than any other form of communication I use and is much more effective than trying something else. The biggest barrier to me for me and most people with the written language is spelling and grammar. Just how do we construct a sentence? What words do we use? How do we put them together? There is also the other greatest barrier with the written language that is the ability and time to read it. If you have got this far within reading this passage on communication you are doing well. I am one who likes to write as I find it gives me time to express my ideas and thoughts onto paper. I also feel it can be the most effective form of communication. You only have to ask William Shakespeare that!

Another barrier with written text is speed of trying to turn it into spoken word. In my experience this has never worked. AAC devices are great for expressing your needs and wants but that is pretty much about all. Having a conversation via an AAC device is next to impossible to do. The speed which one can input text and translate that to speech is far too slow. This is something I have noticed being chairman of a charity that supports children with AAC devices is becoming easier with new technology but still has a long way to go before it can replace speech. There is also the biggest barrier with the written form of communication that is the ability to read it. There are so many people today that are unable to read this is why most of my blogs and emails I send in audio format as well. The age of texting (SMS) messages has made this worse in my view as people have tried to cram in too much within a text message and information gets lost along the way.  Text messages have opened up a whole new world allowing us to communicate on a much more equal level but presents a whole new set of rules and barriers within its own way.

With just touching on those two topics of communication I want to highlight a few more barriers. Some are linked to what I have just written so sorry if I repeat myself. As I have said I have a hearing loss and this presents a problem. People can’t see deafness or the understanding just how confusing it is for me and others to have to try and process the sounds we have heard into a sentence, and then translate that into a reply. Even those who know me best and have a great understanding of deafness I found to be the worse to construct sentences that I will be able to understand at the correct pitch, volume and tone. Putting too much into a sentence leaves me confused and having to ask again as I am still trying to process the first part of the speech before being able to process the second part. It’s not that I haven’t heard them just I cannot concentrate that long to take in all the information, like I have said speech is a complex language structure and having the ability to understand that when you have a hearing loss just makes it so much harder. There are many factors that can affect this. The environment is the main one for me. This is the case for most people with a hearing loss or not. Try and listen to a conversation when you have a lot of background noise or lots going on around you, It’s very difficult.

This brings me onto a form of communication I have found to be fairly affective for me but presents so many barriers it not as good as it could be. That is the ability to use sign language. Sign Language is very expressive and personally I feel has a much simpler grammar structure to it than spoken or written language. The barriers become known when there is no one who can sign around you. The ability to form the hand shapes for you to form the complex signs. My motor skills are very poor I prefer to watch sign language more than sign myself as it gives me a much simpler view to what has been said to me. There is also the normal barriers of having the ability to see the person also understanding their own ability to sign. Unless you get a professional interpreter sometimes it’s very hard to follow someone who is using sign language as mistakes are common.  The other part of using sign language over other forms of communication is the heighten awareness of gesture and facial expression.

Body language is one of the most true forms of communication I find as people say so much with their bodies and don’t even realize it. This presents a whole new barrier as it is very confusing to see someone say one thing and then say a different thing with their body. People often lie with what they say but find it very hard to lie with their body and facial expressions give it away. I use this a lot but it leaves me feeling confused and isolated as I don’t know if what I have heard is what the person is saying are the same thing. 90% of my work is working with people who have little or no verbal speech and little or no hearing. Not having the ability to understand grammar and English they us gesture and facial expressions to communicate their needs and wants. I have found my best conversations have been with these people who use this form of communication that demonstrates to me the more complex you make communication the less affective it becomes..