Verbal and Nonverbal Cues

 

                For this week’s assignment, I chose to watch a football game. Being that I am not really in to sports, I figured that viewing this game with sound off for the first half, then on for the second half, would be both a challenge and good experience for me as I try to master the skill recognizing verbal and nonverbal cues. The characters’ relationships based on the ways in which they were communicating, were that of uniformity and cohesiveness. Because football players do not have time to talk while they are on the field, I believe they relied largely on instinct, eye contact, hand gestures and body movement.  As  I watched the second half with the sound on, I observed the teams relationship as being in tuned with one another. I believed that they utilized a deeper level of concentration that allowed them to use nonverbal cues on the field as their ears. I didn’t make any assumptions about the characters  or plot for which I interpreted from the communication that I observed. I am, however, impressed with the way the team members were able to perform at a high speed regardless of the roar crowd, the expectations of the coach, and the pressure to win the game. I believe that my impressions would have been the same if I had been watching a television show that I like, such as Law & Order: SVU.  I believe this is true being that some messages are subliminal causing viewers to pay closer attention to nonverbal cues such as gestures, body movement, environments, or tone of voice. I believe that this assignment was a great experience in creating an awareness and responsiveness to verbal and nonverbal cues. Being that communication is multifaceted, across a variety of contexts, it is essential to becoming effecting in interpreting what you see, hear, and listen to when working with children, families, and communities in the field of early childhood care and education.