Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Practising Effective Communication

In this activity, you will:

 Get the group to practise their communication and counselling skills

Facilitator’s notes:

In this activity, you will present the group with a series of scenarios which
they will use to practise their communication and counselling skills.
Before you facilitate this activity, you will need to make copies of the
scenarios, and then cut out the instructions for the child and the instructions
for the counsellor for each scenario.

Participants will work in pairs for this activity – one will role-play the child (and receive the
appropriate instructions); the other will role-play the counsellor (and receive their instructions).
Alternatively, you can verbally tell each participant what role he or she will play. This activity will
work best if partners are not aware of each other’s instructions in the scenario. The emphasis
of the activity should focus on the communication and counselling skills displayed by the person
playing the role of the counsellor.

For this activity you will need:

 Copies of the ten scenarios, cut out according to child and

counsellor instructions

To facilitate this activity:

1 Divide the participants up into pairs, explaining that each pair will be working
on a scenario based on an interaction between a child and a counsellor.
Let the pairs decide who plays each role.

2 Give each member of the pair the copy of the appropriate instructions for their role.
Alternatively, you may verbally give the participants the appropriate instructions.
Remember that this activity will work best if pairs are not aware of their partner’s instructions.
The purpose of the activity is for partners who are playing the counselor to ‘think on their feet’,
and respond appropriately, as they would need to do in a real life situation.

3 Allow the participants a few moments to study their roles and plan how they will act and what
they will say. Then have each pair act out their scenario in front of the group. After each
scenario, allow time for the other participants to ask questions and make suggestions.

4 As the facilitator, you should use the opportunity when reviewing the scenarios to link the
role-plays to the information on communication and counselling skills from the last few activities.
For example, point out or highlight an example from a role-play that displays good listening
skills from a counsellor.

Activity 5

The ten scenarios

for this activity are

in Appendix 2 on

page 352

!!

note

1 hour

Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Unit 2, Module 2^183