Saturday, 21 January 2012

• Behavior is a Form of Communication

  
   

  We had had a few moments recently where I have been very strongly reminded that behavior is communication.

  This picture is Heidi covering my mouth because I was saying something she did not want to hear – sometimes when she runs out of words because she is overwhelmed or too excited it is the non verbal cues that I need to watch for. Thankfully covering my mouth with her hand is very simple to understand.

  A more subtle moment was during the dolphin show at Sea World when the music was building up to something and Heidi was sitting beside me very tense and still, just her fingers flick, flick, flicking each other as she waited and worried. A big squishy hug helped and soon Heidi was jumping and clapping again.

  When Heidi is happy she jumps up and down, recently she did this whilst sitting on the top bunk and fell off, bumping her head on a chair on the way down. Annie responded by bolting out of the bedroom and trying to get out the door to run and hide from her sisters pain. Frustrating to have to chase after Annie whilst also needing to care for Heidi and make sure her injuries were not serious. Thankfully my husband was home and we were able to take one child each.

  Annie has a very strong ‘flight’ response when things go wrong, despite her excellent language skills when she is very distressed her first instinct is to run and hide, somewhere alone, safe, quiet and away from the situation.

  All behavior is communication, I just have to keep learning how to translate.

   

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