Pavement - Sidewalk - Footpath

My daughter as recently arrived home from traveling and was showing me some video of her time away. One short clip stuck in my mind as a message about communication and not assuming that the message we give is understood by the person on the receiving end.

She was standing on the footpath of The Mall in London, videoing the crowd waiting for the palace guards to parade past. A police officer was out in the road keeping an eye on proceedings and she came over and yelled at the gathered bystanders to, "keep on the pavement". The command was repeated several times with no movement from the people standing there. Then you could hear on the video, "Pave...., Pave...? What is that?" My daughter, who is from NZ but had just come from America, translated. "Pavement, sidewalk, pavement is called sidewalk, this bit here."

I was reminded recently when talking with some parents about strategies to help their children get on well at school. One strategy we discussed was to get the children to repeat instructions back so that we can get a better idea about their understanding. Just repeating back won't be enough though. The tourists might have been able to answer the police officer if she had come over and asked them, What did I just say?" They might have been able to repeat the message, "stay on the pavement". But if the officer had asked a different question she would have had a better idea of their understanding. "Where did I ask you to stand?" would have clarified understanding.

How often during the day do we assume that people have understood what we mean? If the messages are critical then checking understanding becomes even more critical.

Made me think.