Discussion 4

Discussion

Asking questions is very important and can feel like one of the easiest skills to master. Skillfully asking questions is actually a skill that has to be diligently worked on if a social worker wants to come across as caring and thoughtful. Many factors influence how a social worker uses questions and elaborations in conversations with clients. Some of those factors include the client’s cultural identify, the client’s thoughts and feelings, and the relationship between the social worker and the client.

Questions can be used during all stages of the working relationship but are heavily relied upon during engagement and assessment.

Question Type: Open

What is it? Allows for flexible responding and gives the client more control over the discussions

Examples:

  • How did you feel about that?
  • Where would you like to begin?

Question Type: Closed

What is it? Provides more focus but does not give the client the opportunity to elaborate. Can usually be answered with one word or simple responses

Examples:

  • Do you live alone?
  • Did that make you sad?

Question Type: Pseudo-question

What is it? These can often be a direction or suggestion disguised as a question

Examples:

  • Don’t you want to start on your homework?
  • Aren’t you too old to cry about that?

Question Type: Tangential

What is it? These occur when the social worker is attempting to investigate or inquire about unrelated topics

Examples:

  • Client: I was just at the mall and I was so freaked out by all of the people there. I don’t think I’ll go back any time soon!
    Worker: Oh wow! Did you get a chance to see if that new store opened yet?

Question Type: Rapid Fire

What is it? Acts as barriers to a client responding to your inquiry because too much is asked back-to-back

Examples:

  • Worker: Did you know the boy who was shot at the school yesterday?
    Client: Yes
    Worker: Do you know what happened?
    Client: No
    Worker: Did you feel scared?
    Client: Yes

Question Type: Double-barreled

What is it? When a worker asks multiple questions at once

Examples:

  • Client: I am so glad I have my license now!
    Worker: Really, when did you pass the test? Do you have a car yet?

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Basic Social Work Interviewing Skills and Techniques: A Workbook for Application Copyright © 2023 by Victoria Venable-Edwards and Becky Anthony is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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