From my understanding, nonverbal communication is how a person portrays their body language while expressing how they feel. For example, if a person is frozen, staring you straight in the eyes and speaking through their teeth, we can gather that they are very upset, yet trying to remain in control.
This brings me to my next point. I can apply this term to my own life, and to be specific, a situation of my childhood that taunted me.
I remember playing with my cousins, when I was about 6 years old, at my grandmothers house. Since I was the first boy to be born in the family, I was always playing with the girls since four of my oldest cousins are girls. It did not mean anything to me in tagging along and participating in whatever conquest they were on.
However, one afternoon my uncle was over and saw me carrying a Cabbage Patch Doll. Immediately I knew there was something wrong when he walked towards me with any angry look on his face. He yanked the doll out of my hand, walked over to the drive way, place te doll under a wheel of the car, hopped in the car and ran it over.
I remember the wheels screeching to a stop as he exited the vehicle and began ridiculing me, about how boys were not supposed to be playing with dolls and if he caught me playing with dolls again I would be in big trouble.
I cried and felt tormented. I did not know what to make of the situation and feared playing with any toys while he was around. I not only went through the embarrassment while he yelled at me, but felt the fear when he didn't say anything at all but charged toward me to take to doll away.
After all is said and done, I am a firm believer that when it comes to children we must let them be and let their creative imaginations run wild. This story is similar to many cases of bullying that happen everywhere in the world especially in schools and in younger age groups. Child to child bullying is not acceptable and adult to child bullying should not be an excuse either.
For Information on Bullying & Suicide, We should all help stop the non verbal and verbal violence.
http://www.wegiveadamn.org/
wow. Great point. Nonverbal communication is very powerful, maybe even more powerful than verbal communication. When I was younger, I was never more afraid than when my parents didn't say anything at all verbally but their body language spokes volumes.
ReplyDeleteAlso, bullying is definitely prevelant in schools and in the home. Do you think the bullying you experienced from your uncle had a lasting effect on your emotional well being?
I know, it is so funny as an adult to look back and think of how scary parents could be when giving you that look.
ReplyDeleteYes, bullying definitely scarred me in many ways, I still get very nervous around people or very insecure, Or stress about about what people are going to say or think about me. I have done my best to fight it off and not care, but sometimes it comes back to haunt me.
Were you ever bullied in a way by your siblings or classmates, that made you under estimate yourself or question your ability to do something like make the softball team?
Anthony, i couldnt agree with you more. "I am a firm believer that when it comes to children we must let them be and let their creative imaginations run wild." i also grew up in a community where boys playing with dolls was not acceptable. Nonverbal communication is very powerful because the verbal aspect of communication allows us to gain further insight and understanding about what is being communicated to us but without words we are left to create our own meaning by what we percieve and not by what was actually communicated in words. While i was growing up non verbal commmunication was also very popular in my household.. i still remember my mother would sometimes give me a look with her eyes which looked something like o_O and this look meant i was in trouble...
ReplyDeleteNonverbal communication is very powerful.