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It's a scenario every nursery school teacher is familiar
with. A child - for no obvious reason - suddenly won't make
eye contact. Or a usually cheerful toddler breaks off from
play and sits with his back to the room.
These children are communicating in a non-verbal way. Their
body language is saying they are upset, or don't want to confront
authority figures. Other children communicate different messages
with their eyes and limbs but all these actions are part of
a vocabulary that is learned and inherited. In a group of
under-fives, it can be the prime way of getting a point across.
Without any self-consciousness, a child will physically give
voice to what they can't say. Yet experienced practitioners
are aware that each child differs and will take their personality
into consideration when watching them.
"You can tell how a child is feeling the moment she walks
through the gate," says Sue Donovan, head-teacher at Holmewood
Nursery School in Lambeth, south London. "If a normally boisterous
child arrives reluctant to come in, clinging to her mother,
then it's obvious she's upset. If she's a more introverted
child, she may need initial time out from the general melée
on a more regular basis."
The young actively learn through body language. Babies soon
discover that pointing works and can result in rewards. They're
also keen judges of facial expressions.
Pat Barber, training manager with the Pre-school Learning
Alliance says, "Parents and practitioners working with small
children must be aware that their body language is a model
for children and an effective way of teaching as well as communicating."
This access to learning is important to a child's development
and, while certain gestures may be employed as reassurance
and comfort, much of how a practitioner moves will help and
engage a child in learning.
At Lilycroft Nursery in Bradford, the staff are highly aware
of gestures and body language. "Our children almost exclusively
have parents of Pakistani origin," explains teacher Ian Tothil.
"Monolingual teachers such as myself have to rely on body
language to communicate. It's a very effective way of getting
a message across when you're teaching, so we use a lot of
expression and big, explicit gestures."
According to specialists, children are born with an inherent
body language that is common to all peoples and they learn
further actions as they develop. "There are many movements
which appear to be universal, suggesting we are born with
them, such as a look of surprise. On top of those is a series
of learned expressions which can be different from culture
to culture", says Dr Peter Bull, senior lecturer in psychology
at the University of York and author of Communication under
the Microscope. "These cultural differences take time to develop
and are less marked in very young children."
Practitioners back his views. Lydia McEwen, head of Hampden
Nursery Centre in Camden which has an ethnically diverse intake,
believes children have a universal body language. "We have
some children who physically express themselves very confidently,
irrespective of race or colour. I think that's to do with
the child and their family life.
In very young children, cultural differences are only just
starting to emerge, and according to practitioners what is
more important in understanding body language is knowing the
child, rather than the culture.
From "Body Talk", Su Clark, Upstart (Sure Start newsletter)
Body language, including facial expression, accompanies most
human speech to gain effective communication. It supports
speech, helping to clarify meaning and making it more accessible
to the listener. Only when you speak to someone who cuts out
facial expression and gestures do you realise the important
role that both play in conveying meaning.
Babies have an innate drive to communicate and socialise
and in so doing satisfy their powerful desire to find out
about their world. They learn language more easily when the
person with whom they are having a dialogue uses 'parentese'
or infant-directed speech. Exaggerated and dramatised body
language is a natural part of parentese. Babies acquire it
and begin to use it to communicate in the babbling stage,
between six and 15 months, before they can say words. By three
years most children's body language resembles that of adults
who regularly hold dialogue with them. Bilingual children
acquire the different forms of body language linked to their
two languages and most, by the age of three, rarely seem to
confuse them.
Babies will copy gestures
Babies acquire body language, like speech, through imitation.
However, from six to 15 months, the development of body language
and ability to say words is not synchronised. Before babies
can utter their first words, they develop gestures to communicate
their needs, thoughts and feelings.
In this period babbling is a vital preverbal practice, helping
babies to adapt to the developing mouth cavity (including
new teeth), and find out about the lips and tongue and how
to blow air past their developing vocal cords rather than
sucking. During this period, babies develop finer muscular
control which enables them to imitate hand and arm gestures
as well as facial expressions used by others.
Babies understand much more than they are capable of communicating
during this period, which can cause them frustration. Most
well babies cope naturally with their inability to verbalise
by developing their vocabularly of gestures. They naturally
shake their heads from side to side for no and up and down
for yes.
When adults recognise and praise gestures, babies are stimulated
to continue gesturing and create their own. As they develop
finer muscular control they refine the quality of gestures,
so by the time they reach 12 months they begin to use some
gestures together with accompanying words or phrases. As their
ability to verbalise increases, language becomes more important
and gestures fade to take their place among regular body language.
Vigorous pointing at objects at eight months gradually diminishes
as toddlers use naming words.
How gestures and signs help children become skilled communicators
- They help to dissipate frustration and tension as babies
feel they are communicating when their gestures get some
reaction.
- Gestures increase opportunities for deeper communication
and improve bonding and the feel-good factor.
- Research suggests that gestures increase and consolidate
brain connections, which contributes to earlier verbalisation.
- When adults respond to babies' gestures, enthusiastically
mirroring them and praising, it stimulates and provides
further acquisition experiences.
- Gestures are helpful to boys, who are often later verbal
communicators and may need to alleviate physical frustration
and stress.
- The extra effort and time given by the adult to develop
and respond to gestures makes baby feel good.
Introducing gestures
Parentese includes
the use of gesture. When you first use a gesture, the physical
movement tends to be exaggerated, even dramatised, and is
accompanied by stressed intonation, both of which help the
baby to focus. When you first introduce a universal sign,
baby is likely to make no physical reaction although some
learning will have taken place. Baby's first attempts to make
a sign may be unrecognisable except to those adults they have
closely bonded with. It is important to praise any effort
and mirror baby's sign, confirming it with parentese.
As baby develops, motor skills are continually refined, as
is the ability to imitate. In the first attempts to wave bye-bye,
the hand may be partially lifted and not moved. As more control
develops, the hand is moved up and down without any movement
of the fingers, which comes later.
The first signs used can be a choice of universal signs or
the baby's own sign based on their experience. Other signs
can be focused on as the opportunity arises and when baby
is ready, so a repertoire of gestures gradually builds up.
Baby will watch and in time imitate when learning has taken
place. Pushing baby to perform before they are ready gains
little expect satisfaction for adults.
Gestures should always be made with exactly the same movements
as any small difference can confuse baby in the initial stages
of imitating. Repetition and yet more repetition may seem
boring to adults, but babies enjoy it and also need it, as
it helps to consolidate brain connections. Be prepared to
make the same sign repeatedly and let baby do the same.
Gestures may be named using one word, such as 'hungry', or
a phrase, such as 'all gone.' They should be accompanied by
parentese explaining the situation, repeating and rephrasing
the accompanying language and scaffolding the experience where
appropriate. For example: 'Oh, you're hungry. Wait a minute
while I get something. Let me see. How about a biscuit?' Holding
up a biscuit. 'Yes, please?' Nodding the head up and down
with a smile or both hands held out to take the biscuit. 'Here
you are.' Giving baby the biscuit.
Using books
Picture story books can help to confirm babies' understanding
of universal gestures such as smiling to greet, clapping to
say hoorah or hugging to show love.
- Books provide opportunities for babies to refine their
ability to make gestures. Over many readings, babies gradually
refine their movmeents and even add more expression.
- Books provide a framework to broaden experiences, using
gestures and transferring langauge beyond baby's environment.
- Books provide babies with opportunities to browse and
absorb experiences in their own time and at their own speed.
- Stories provide opportunities for natural repetition.
More on reading with baby
Encouraging babies to make gestures in this pre-verbal stage
is an important step to developing verbalisation. Babies who
are encouraged to gesture get satisfaction and stimulation
from adults' enthusiastic responses, helping babies to appreciate
the depth, power and joys of communicating which in turn contributes
to developing verbalisation.
Gesturing, however, is only part of the continuum of language
development that depends on the amount and quality of language
that babies hear. Without the continual flow of appropriate
parentese dialogues, babies will be deprived of the necessary
wealth of language experience they need to work out how sounds
are put together and language works - the foundations necessary
for becoming skilful communicators.
From "Read the signs", Opal Dunn, Nursery
World, 3.6.2004
How do even very young babies know
to look at your eyes when you're talking to them - not at
your mouth, where the sound comes from?
From birth, newborns pay particular attention to the human
face in comparison with other types of visual patterns and
the eyes are the most conspicuous feature of the face. Measurements
of where babies fixate when looking at a face reveal that
they concentrate their gaze on the eye region. We also know
that the eye region generates the majority of brain activity
in those areas of the brain that process faces in general.
When looking at faces, babies cue into eyes from as early
as we can measure and this appears to be the basis of early
social behaviour. From two to three months, if you gaze at
a baby, they will smile back at you, but if you look away,
smiling and mutual gaze declines. It seems unlikely that such
behaviours are learned but rather reflect a repertoire of
behaviours that are built in to kick-start social interaction.
So, in a sense, they do not have to 'know how'. It's part
of our endowed genetic behavioural pattern to attend to faces
in general and eyes in particular.
Professor Bruce Hood, chair of developmental
psychology, University of Bristol
(The Guardian, 18.10.06)
Body Language Expert is a website with lots of articles and information on body language, with features and practical advice. Visit www.bodylanguageexpert.co.uk
Not Just Talking is a company
that was set up by Sioban Boyce, who trained as a speech and
language therapist and now works as a communication/behaviour
specialist. She is a specialist in the development of non-verbal
communication skills and the impact on babies and school-age
children of the failure to develop skills in this area. Not
Just Talking provides one-to-one support to children and gives
them the tools to develop their non-verbal communication skills.
For more information visit www.notjusttalking.co.uk
Oogly Boogly is an event, a performance and a game. It takes place in an inflatable tent with up to 8 toddlers and their parents. Performers follow and amplify the children's spontaneous activity and parents watch and conversational body language begins. For more information visit www.ooglyboogly.org.uk
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