1. Participant Centered facilitate group
discussion (FGD):
Talk, Listen, and Connect (TLC)
Sinki Ho
WIC Head Nutritionist
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

2. Your thoughts on FGD
• What does an effective group mean to you?
• What are your concern and challenge?

3. From traditional to new approach in WIC
• Provide fact-based information vs. emotion-
based
• Remain professional like a teacher vs. group
discussions to connect participants
• Distribute handouts to use images to connect

4. Characteristics of Effective Groups
• Clear and consistent group goal
• Active participation
• Clear communication
• Listen to others
• Share ideas
• Safety and trust
• Good leadership

5. Purpose of FGD
• Provide an opportunity for participants to
learn in a pleasant, informal atmosphere
• Encourage participants to educate each other
by discussing their knowledge of a topic and
sharing real-life experience
• Built self-esteem
• Enable participants to give and receive
support about their concern and make desired
behavior change

6. Role of the Facilitator
• Make others what they need to do easily
Create a safe and comfortable environment
As a person to initiate and moderate the
group
Guides the discussion
Mindful participants needs and interests
Clear with the compents of FGD
Well-prepared

7. Components of FGD/TLC
Take about 15-20 minutes long
4-8 participants but can be 2-10
• Open
• Share and Connect
• Summarize and Act
• Emphasis on feelings and experiences

8. Opening the session
• Introduction: greeting, introduce yourself and
the group
• Conversation Starters: ask Open-Ended
Questions
– Can not be answered with a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ or a
specific question
– Sample starters: What…When…How…Where…Tell
me about…

9. Share and Connect
Affirmation: validate speaker’s effort, experience,
and strength -> encourage sharing
- ‘Thank you for sharing. Good job! Keep it up!’
Generalizing: normalize speaker’s experience,
feeling and perception -> help challenging
questions or statements, encourage sharing
- ‘A lot of participants…’
Paraphrasing: use your own words to restate
message -> check understanding, validate the
participant
- ‘Do you mean…? What I heard from you…?’

10. Summarizing
• Bring ideas together
• Facilitator can highlight ideas and points made
in the group
• Repeat relevant information
• Get back on focus

11. Act
• Ask participants for something they are taking
away from the group
– What may you try this week/month?
– What is one new thing you heard or learnt today?

12. Group behaviors
• Emotion triggers behavior change
• We want them to change their challenging
behaviors but not the person
• We encourage a positive experience for
participants

13. Preparation
• Topic
• Introduction
• Conversation starter
• Statement of ACT

14. Any Question?

15. Thank You for your listening and
participation!