Parent-Child Interpersonal Non-Verbal Communication - Research Paper Example

PARENT CHILD INTERPERSONAL GROUP PROJECT NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION ment of Purpose: The purpose of this interpersonal group project is to explain the nonverbal communication through its various components like facial expressions, posture, body orientation, emotions and gesture. The occupation that I am selecting is parent and child. Before going into the detail of this communication I would like to define the nonverbal communication. Define/Describe the element: Nonverbal communication is the way of communication without the use of words and involves different elements to convey message like facial expressions, gestures and emotions that makes the verbal communication more effective and help the speaker to convey his message more clearly. Elements of nonverbal communication There are different elements of the nonverbal communication that help to communicate feelings with the verbal communication that are explained below. Facial expressions: Facial expressions include the smiles, anger, surprise and sad expressions of face that help others to judge the mood of the individual by his facial expressions. Gesture: Gesture includes body language which includes all the movements of the hands, arms, head that a person consciously or unconsciously does in order to convey particular message. These movements are like moving hands, shaking head or nodding, moving eyes, winking, fidgeting with hands and many other different gestures using our different body parts... Voice: The low or high pitch of voice also demonstrates the mood and feelings of any individual alongwith it, it may show that whether one is taking anything important and considering it or not etc. Eye contact: Eye contact makes the listener more attentive as through eye contact, a kind of communication is maintained between people. Posture and body orientation: The posture and body orientation include the way of sitting, lying, holding your head, crossed arms to show attitude and behavior towards the other. Artifacts: The video showed today represents all the nonverbal communication between mother and her child like gesture, appearance, movements, facial expression, voice, and posture and body orientation. Out of many elements of the video i.e. facial expressions, gesture, posture and body orientation and voice are discussed below. Facial expressions: Facial expression conveys a message to the other about the mood and feelings of the mother as well those of child. Parents mostly use facial expressions to convey a message to their child when they are busy in doing their work. Mother mostly stares at her child to show that she wants the child to stop the act, the child is doing and that look of staring mother lets the child know the mood of the mother. If the child is learning something, the mother smiles to praise the child as it will enhance the confidence of the child. If the child shows something extraordinary mother mostly gives surprised expression with the opened mouth. When mother tries to make the child understand something, she mostly looks into her eyes that makes her child more focused and attentive. Mother also gives stern look to the child if the child disobeys or does not listen to the mother. The child also shows different facial expressions to convey his message to his mother in different circumstances. A child makes sad face with shrink eyes to let her mother know that he is not happy and wants to play. If the child does something that may harm the child, mother tries to prevent the child with the scared facial expressions with the particular aural sounds that help the child to understand the seriousness and harmfulness of that thing. Gesture: Gestures are also very important to deliver the message and they make the listener more attentive towards the speaker. Gestures include all the movements of hands, arms, and head that help the listeners to understand, what the speaker tries to convey. The mother opens her arms to invite her child to come closer. Mostly, mother claps to make her child attentive towards her. Mother also nods her head to say yes to her child when he asks something to take and mother also points out the specific chair with the finger where she wants her child to sit. Similarly the child also uses different gestures to make her mother understand what he is trying to explain. For example, a child opens her arms to maximum extent to show her mother how much big the thing is, about which she is discussing. The child also raises his finger towards the object to let her mother know what he wants from the showcase. Sometimes mother asks her child a question and child shrugs his shoulders to say that he does not know about the answer. The child also wave his hand when he leaves the house that is a gesture of saying good bye to his mother. Sometimes when a child refuses to do something he shakes his head negatively to tell his mother that he does not want to do a specific task. Posture/ body orientation Body orientation includes the way of standing or holding your head to demonstrate different moods and mind situations. In the mother and child communication if the child does something messy in the room, mother holds his head to show him that he has done something worse that has brought him punishment. The mother standing straight in front of the child and describing something to her child means she is more serious about the issue she is talking about. On the other hand if the mother is leaning on the child and explaining something it makes the child less attentive and less scared about the gravity of the issue as the child knows that mother is not that much serious about the issue due to her posture. The child also changes his own posture according to the mood he is having alongwith the seriousness which he wants to show about certain thing which has scared him or at least grasped his attention to be considered. The child when sees some insect or something which scares him shrinks his whole body out of fear in order to express the horror which fills his heart looking at some creature of this kind as insects or animals etc. Voice: The voice also conveys the different messages to the listener as the low pitched or high pitched voice communicates different messages to the listener. There happens to be levels of pitch. It can be very low in order to whisper something and it can be low averagely which may show the restraint of any individual if he keeps the same low voice even during anger. In the same way, high pitched voice may be an expression of anger or of joy. Mother mostly uses low pitch voice to whisper something to the child that makes the child feel that it’s a secret between the mother and child and in this way the child becomes more attentive toward the mother and enjoys that conversation. He feels this thing to be confidential alongwith it gives him impression that mother has trust on the child. On the other hand the child uses high pitched voice to tell her mother that the thing he is requesting is the utmost desire of him. Thus to conclude, the nonverbal communication is essential part of the verbal communication that makes your verbal communication more effective and clear for the listeners. It also stabilizes the relationship between the individuals as the positive facial expressions and gesture makes the other more intimated with the other. Read More