How to Establish Relationships with Children and Young People

Describe how to establish respectful, professional relationships with children and young people

It is very important in the role as a teaching assistant to develop the correct relationship with all the children that you are working with. You need to build up trust with each child and make the child feel valued. You need to care for the children as they will sense it if you do not. If they feel that you don’t care, they will not work with you to the best of their ability.

When building up a relationship with a child it is important to remember a few key things:
• Firstly, be approachable and respond politely to any questions. You should always be willing to listen to each child that you are working with.
• When listening to a child you should give them your full attention. You can do this by looking at them and responding to them so they know that you have listened.
• You should allow the pupils to put forward their views in their own words. Do not interrupt them before they have finished.
• You should encourage children to cooperate with one another aswell as with teachers
• You should try and see things from the child’s point of view. Children think differently to thoughts. You need to make them feel valued.
So, if you treat all the pupils that you work with with respect whilst keeping the relationship professional (you shouldn’t have personal relationships with children where possible outside of school as it could cause complications in school) you should be able to get the most out of that child.

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