Language for Behaviour and Emotions: A Practical Guide to Working with Children and Young People

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If you want to become a better communicator, it's important to become more sensitive not only to the body language and nonverbal cues of others, but also to your own. Nonverbal communication can play five roles: Melanie Cross is a speech and language therapist who has worked with looked after children for many years. Her work has focussed on developing speech and language therapy services for children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs (SEMH). This work has resulted in publications including Children with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties and Communication Problems (2nd edition, 2011), and she was lead author of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Clinical Guidelines on Social Emotional and Mental Health. She is also a trainer, video interaction guider and supervisor.

Donnelly, J. E., Hillman, C. H., Castelli, D., Etnier, J. L., Lee, S., Tomporowski, P., … Szabo-Reed, A. N. (2016). Physical activity, fitness, cognitive function, and academic achievement in children: A systematic review. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 48(6), 1197–1222. The arms and legs can also be useful in conveying nonverbal information. Crossing the arms can indicate defensiveness. Crossing legs away from another person may indicate dislike or discomfort with that individual. Books. Talk about how characters respond to situations in books. Often even simple books have a narrative in which a character has a challenge they need to overcome or a puzzle they need to solve. For example, in Dear Zoo the central character is looking for a pet. How does he feel when this range of unsuitable pets are sent to him? In this game, one person makes a face and the other person copies it. Take this game a step further by having children identify the emotion they are mirroring.Dunn J, Brown J, Slomkowski C, Tesla C, Youngblade L. Young children’s understanding of other people’s feelings and beliefs: Individual differences and their antecedents. Child Development 1991;62(6):1352-1366. This shift in paradigm can be challenging for adults, especially because many of us have not had explicit instruction in the life skill of managing our own emotions. Hall ET. A system for the notation of proxemic behavior. American Anthropologist. October 1963;65(5):1003-1026. doi:10.1525/aa.1963.65.5.02a00020.

Adolphs, R., Gosselin, F., Buchanan, T. W., Tranel, D., Schyns, P., & Damasio, A. R. (2005). A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage. Nature, 433(7021), 68–72. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03086 Once you've developed your abilities to manage stress and recognize emotions, you'll start to become better at reading the nonverbal signals sent by others. It's also important to: When you are evaluating body language, pay attention to some of the following signals that the arms and legs may convey: Tipper CM, Signorini G, Grafton ST. Body language in the brain: constructing meaning from expressive movement. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015;9:450. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00450 Questions such as, “How do you think the character felt?” and “How would you feel if you were this character?” support children’s understanding of emotions and can encourage them to develop empathy.

9 Activities for Toddlers and Children

Body language can tell you when someone feels anxious, angry, excited, or any emotion. It may also suggest personality traits (i.e., whether someone is shy or outgoing). But, body language can be misleading. It is subject to a person's mood, energy level, and circumstances. Evans MA. Reticent primary grade children and their more talkative peers: Verbal, nonverbal, and self concept characteristics. Journal of Educational Psychology 1996;88(4):739-749. The term proxemics, coined by anthropologist Edward T. Hall, refers to the distance between people as they interact. Just as body movements and facial expressions can communicate a great deal of nonverbal information, so can the physical space between individuals. These are difficult emotions, but you never need to hide. Share that feeling with someone you trust. You can tell them what's inside. Examples of body language include facial expressions, eye gaze, gestures, posture, and body movements. In many cases, the things we don't say can convey volumes of information.

D'agostino TA, Bylund CL. Nonverbal accommodation in health care communication. Health Commun. 2014;29(6):563-73. doi:10.1080/10410236.2013.783773 It comes as no surprise that books should also be a part of school-aged students’ emotional learning. People often blink more rapidly when they are feeling distressed or uncomfortable. Infrequent blinking may indicate that a person is intentionally trying to control his or her eye movements. According to the emotional theorist Vygotsky, emotion is the very origin of play (Colliver & Veraksa, 2021). During this time, children can practice what they are not yet able to do. I am learning skills and strategies which will support me in challenging times (HWB 0-07a / HWB 1-07a).Lee, R. L. T., Lane, S. J., Tang, A. C. Y., Leung, C., Louie, L. H. T., Browne, G., & Chan, S. W. C. (2020). Effects of an unstructured free play and mindfulness intervention on wellbeing in kindergarten students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15), 5382. So, why is body language important? Body language can help us understand others and ourselves. It provides us with information about how people may be feeling in a given situation. We can also use body language to express emotions or intentions. Barrett, L. F. (2013). Psychological construction: A Darwinian approach to the science of emotion. Emotion Review, 5, 379–389. In this game, the lead player calls out “Red light!” and “Green light!” while the remaining players run toward the lead player when the light is “green” and stop when it’s “red.” In this active game, players practice control of their physical body and emotions. 2. Mirror, mirror Camras, L. A., Oster, H., Bakeman, R., Meng, Z., Ujiie, T., & Campos, J. J. (2007). Do infants show distinct negative facial expressions for fear and anger? Emotional expression in 11-month-old European American, Chinese, and Japanese infants. Infancy, 11(2), 131–155.

Children are never too young to learn emotional regulation strategies, such as breathing and progressive muscle relaxation.That there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different experiences and situations. Ekman P. Darwin's contributions to our understanding of emotional expressions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond, B, Biol Sci. 2009;364(1535):3449-51. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0189 It also helped his daughter to both recognise emotions herself, and in social situations. Dunn et al showed that mothers' and older siblings'emotionallanguageused with 18-month-old children was positively associated with each child's speech about emotions at 24 months. As we often find, children’s language reflects their home and social worlds. Pupil size can be a very subtle nonverbal communication signal. While light levels in the environment control pupil dilation, sometimes emotions can also cause small changes in pupil size. Nasution, A. A. (2021). Students’ perspectives of Simon Says game to practice listening skill at grade eight students of MTsS Madinatussalam in 2020/2021 academic year. Bright Vision Journal of Language and Education, 1(1), 8–19.