ABSTRACT
Many people working with children can recall a time when they have sat with a child on a chair opposite them and they have attempted to find out how the child was feeling. The adult, as uncomfortable as the child, resorts to questions. ‘How are you getting on at school?’ ‘All right’ ‘What’s your favourite subject?’ ‘Games.’ ‘How do you feel about your dad being away?’ ‘Don’t know.’ ‘How are things at home?’ ‘All right,’ ‘How do you get on with mum and Paul?’ ‘All right.’ Communication has not even started. Clare Winnicott explains how to bridge the communication gap, She writes:
We spend a good deal of time creating the conditions which make communication possible. We try to establish between ourselves and the children a neutral area in which communication is indirect. In other words we participate in shared experiences, about which both we and the children feel something about something else, a third thing, which unites us, but which at the same time keeps us safely apart because it does not involve direct exchange between us.
