2 posts tagged “reading body language”

     Babies have innate ability to communicate through body language. They are programmed to understand nonverbal signals that adults send them. Words would have some meaning and understanding at much later stage and it's just near second birthday when they start use simple sentences to communicate their needs.

     Newborns can see just about 20-30 cm away, but right from the start can recognise human face. They are attracted to human face much more than to anything else. And it is very important to keep babies on hands at such distance so they can see the face. As babysitter expert Lisa pointed in one of her recent posts it is important to talk to babies even if they can't understand words just yet. By trying to get into baby level parents would also smile, do funny faces, rock, sing etc. A lot of body touching is involved massaging, tickling, cuddling, kissing etc.

     One of the first body language expressions that babies master is smiling. They use a lot of nonverbal signals to show their feelings and needs. For example waving arms and kicking to show their happiness, turning away when they don't want something (like food), banging on something or throwing things to get attention, pointing or taking parent's hand to lead to desirable thing and much much more.

     Babies learn body language by observing and imitating adults. It can be to such great level that sometimes parents see themselves in those small bodies. So it's important for parents to watch what signals they send through out the day.

     Body language help babies in learning new skills and parents should encourage this. Singing, clapping, stamping, dancing, laughing are just few examples.

     Very often, especially with smaller babies parents use body gestures to demonstrate what baby should do. For example when they try to feed baby they might also open and close their mouth and even do swallowing movements or putting two hands together to one of the ears to show it's time to sleep etc. 

    Babies are best in reading and decoding body language. They understand the mood and emotions of adults from little cues. A wag of the finger, a stern look, shake of the head, nodding, smiling, outstretched arms ready for hugs etc.

     Babies are also the best in manipulating parents. They know  when and how to press the "button" to get what they want. How it comes we have to learn a lot of skills, like influence and persuasion, again once grown up?

For more information on body language visit Improving Communication in Business and Personal Life 

    Hands are really helpful in reading body language. They have 27 bones and are very expressive part of the body. Actually in nonverbal communication hands are probably second most expressive after the face.

    But in reading and decoding signals that hands are sending one should be extra careful. In different cultures the same expressions might have very different if not opposit meaning. What considers good manner in one country can get you into trouble in another.

  The signals that hands send might be subtle or a clear exaggeration to emphasize the point.

   When you suspect that somebody is lying to you along with other signs pay attention to the hands. Very often a liar would try to control their hands. So when hands are kept still or holding one another or are behind the back that may be a sign of lying. But again, this should be an addition to other primary signs.

       Hands can be used to hold some items that would make the person feel comfortable, like holding a cup where a cup represents that person and they are subconsciously hugging themselves.

       When during conversation a person holds imaginary thing it indicates its significance. If a thing is important hands "hold" it tightly and close to the body. So when the thing is not wanted or isn't important it's held further away from the body.

     With the use of hands we can also release nervous energy or impatience, such clicking the pen or nocking the table with fingers.

    Cupped hands indicate delicacy, fragile idea. If expressed with both hands that gives a stronger meaning.

   Gripping hands has the meaning of desire to possess something or actual possesion. Usually stronger feeling is represented with tighter fist.

       Sometimes two hands can express different desires. E.g. one hand forms a fist while another holds it back. This may be used to restrain the desire to punch the other person.

      We can show others where to go by pointing finger or with the whole hand.

   Sometimes we need to hold or restrain the other person. We usualy do that with a hand turned palm down. We even can use both hands for more significance. So such expression usually "asks" the other person either to calm down or stop doing something.

    In handshaking the palm down hand indicate a dominant person.

Even more obvious signal is facing palms toward the other person. This sends a signal to stop comming closer and is used when person feels that their personal space is at danger. 

Hands are often used in greetings.

Waving in the air is usualy done in a distance.

 In the military they usually use salutes as a greeting and this is rarely seen elsewhere.

Another way of greeting is kissing the hand. These days it is not very popular, but still sometimes takes place. This is probably used to show or attract extra attention.

 The character of shaking can reveal quite a lot about the person. As I mentioned earlier a dominant person would use hand on top position. Dominance is also shown by the strength, the length of holding as well as adding to handshaking the other hand (holding the other person's hand inside their both hands).

Affection can be seen through the duration and strength of the shake, touching person with another hand and a genuine smile. Affection is similar to dominance and may cause tricky situation, when authoritarian person tries to show friendliness.

Most handshakes, though, are vertical and mean equality of both parties. Shake is firm and done with certain interval (not too short or too long).

  Palm up in shaking hands means submission. Usually person put little strength into shake and withdraws their hand quite quickly.

 More on hand body language in tomorrow's post. Stay tuned.

Improving Communication in Business and Personal Life

source:www.changingminds.org