Nonverbal Means of Communication
This material is suitable for children of any school age. Means of communication can be divided into two groups: nonverbal and verbal. Nonverbal communication is interaction between people without using words. It involves conveying information through gestures, facial expressions, and body language. Through nonverbal means of communication, one can obtain much more information than through verbal means. Gestures and poses during a conversation can reveal a person’s mood and emotions. The human body has an enormous range of expressive capabilities. The ability to read nonverbal signals is a crucial condition for effective communication.
For a child with visual impairment, it is important to learn how to socialize in life. Some communication skills, such as gestures and facial expressions, cannot be spontaneously acquired by people with visual impairment through natural imitation due to the lack of visual reference. They cannot see, for example, how to put on a coat or buy groceries in a store. In conversation, stiffness, lack of facial expressions, an immobile “mask-like” face, and certain awkwardness in movements can perplex sighted interlocutors. Special and prolonged work is needed to develop the ability to confidently present oneself in society, move gracefully and naturally, and communicate effectively with various people, including mastering facial expressions and pantomime.
What is pantomime? In the case of children with visual impairments, we will consider pantomime as body expressions. Explain to the child that steps, how a person walks, and the force with which they step on the ground can already indicate their mood. A person’s movements can convey their emotional state and what they are feeling. It is necessary to teach the child the art of pantomime, learning to depict things without words so that others can understand their gestures. Developing the skill of pantomime also trains children’s creative thinking and imagination.
To develop pantomime skills, you can perform the following exercises:
- Pretend someone has a stomachache: Indicate the place of the pain and show the facial expression associated with the pain.
- Show how to react when someone steps on your foot: You can hop on one foot and shake the injured foot.
- Demonstrate different types of walks: The shuffling walk of elderly people, children’s jumps, a sleepy person doing exercises, a butterfly’s flight, a cat washing its face with its paw, and playing the drums.
These exercises help develop the expressiveness of facial expressions and movements in children, promoting the development of social skills and the ability to communicate without words.
Exercise 1
You have a huge apple in your hands. You open your mouth wide and take a bite. Oh! It’s bitter. You take a second apple and bite it. Oh! It’s sour. You take a third apple and bite it – it’s sweet. Show that the apple is bitter, sour, and sweet.
Exercise 2
There is a vase with flowers in front of you. You inhale the fragrance of the flowers. Ah, how lovely! Show how you smell the flowers. Let the child take several deep breaths and describe how the inhaled air passes through the nose.
Exercise 3
Pretend to be any animal (a fox, a wolf, a cat, a dog), and show its habits. Talk about the fox, the wolf, and the cat. How are they different? How are they similar? Tell a story with your animal.
This is a plastic improvisation on a given plot that the child invents during the game.
The goal of these activities is to teach children the elements and basics of pantomime, develop the expressiveness of their facial expressions, and train their imagination. Through pantomime, a child can turn even the most difficult life situations into a joke. The ability to lighten the mood is often necessary in challenging life circumstances.